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The Construction of Cognitive Maps by Children with Visual Impairments

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Book cover The Construction of Cognitive Maps

Part of the book series: GeoJournal Library ((GEJL,volume 32))

Abstract

The way in which children who have visual impairments construct cognitive maps of their environment is of considerable theoretical and practical importance. It sheds light on the role of sensory experience in the development of spatial cognition which can in turn suggest how spatial skills might be nurtured in visually impaired children. In most of the studies reviewed here, groups of children who lost their sight early in life perform less well on a variety of spatial tasks than sighted children or children who lost their sight later in life. We will argue that it is not the lack of visual experience in itself which produces this pattern, but rather the effect of lack of vision on the spatial coding strategies adopted by the children. Finally we will discuss a number of methods for encouraging visually impaired children to use coding systems which are appropriate for the construction of flexible and integrated cognitive maps, with particular reference to the use of tactile maps.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, P.O. Box 603, Sheffield, S10 2UR

    Simon Ungar, Mark Blades & Christopher Spencer

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  1. Simon Ungar
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  2. Mark Blades
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  3. Christopher Spencer
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  1. Department of Geography, Tel Aviv University, Israel

    Juval Portugali

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Ungar, S., Blades, M., Spencer, C. (1996). The Construction of Cognitive Maps by Children with Visual Impairments. In: Portugali, J. (eds) The Construction of Cognitive Maps. GeoJournal Library, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33485-1_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-33485-1_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

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