TY  - UNPB
M1  - Masters
Y1  - 2006/09//
TI  - The implications of the ?palimpsest? of the grids of the main city of Piraeus on creation, transmission and application of cognitive knowledge
N1  - Unpublished
PB  - UCL (University College London)
ID  - discovery2361
KW  - spatial cognition
KW  -  wayfinding
KW  -  experiments
KW  -  cognitive maps
KW  -  mental maps
KW  -  allocentric
KW  -  egocentric
KW  -  spatial syntax
KW  -  space syntax
EP  - 163
AV  - public
N2  - This research aims to investigate the local rules and constraints which govern the
individual behaviours of the pedestrians of Piraeus, Port of Athens, Greece, by examining
the relationship between the spatial syntax of mental representations and the spatial
syntax of the environment. The overlaid urban grids of the main city create a ?palimpsest?
on which the mental spatial models of the users are constructed. Invoking three different
criteria, three experiments were conducted in the city?s key-locations ? Peraiki Coast,
Mikrolimano and Sotiros Dios St. The first criterion concerned people?s access to spatial
information (target locations that are out of sight vs. locations with visual access). The
second and the third criterion concerned the types of the reference systems; egocentric
vs. allocentric and global vs. local scale respectively. The configurational, geographical
and topological characteristics of the peninsula provide rather an ambiguous sense of the
ease or difficulty of the cognitive understanding of the site. Using syntactical tools of space
syntax methodology (axial maps, visibility graphs, isovists) and descriptive statistics (mean
averages, deviation averages, z-test, central limit theorem test) in the experiments, the
close relation between the concepts of intelligibility, spatial configurations and visuospatial
representations is demonstrated. The information provided to the pedestrians has
an impact on their wayfinding and navigation processes. It is concluded that the
cognitive knowledge of the pedestrians of Piraeus (etymological "the place over the
passage") is created, transmitted and applied by the geometrical forms of the city, the
morphology of the local visual field ? which involves issues of configuration and scale of a
space layout ? and by topological relations. The most ancient grid although it contains the
elements that have shaped the city?s contemporary urban space, are not easily
recognisable by ?strangers?, but they are mostly found in ?inhabitants?? internal
representations. On the contrary, the elements from the modern times are more frequently
cited and they appear to dominate the cognitive model of all users.
UR  - https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/2361/
A1  - Rafailaki, E.
ER  -