CogMap Analyst – a quantitative analysis of the structure and content characteristics of sketch drawings of cognitive maps of urbanized spaces

Abstract

Abstract The paper presents the specification of the CogMap Analyst program, which has been created for the purpose of conducting an analysis of the structure and content of sketch drawings of cognitive maps of urbanized spaces. Assumptions for this analytic tool come from the neobehavioral understanding of the concept of cognitive maps, which has its source in the works of Tolman, and from the criteria of analyzing their contents and structure, which were developed by Lynch (1960). The program serves the purpose of collecting numerical data on the quantity, size, as well as placement and distortion of objects on drawings by participants in relation to the actual layout of the terrain, which was selected by the researcher, and to the sketch’s scale. This data may be used not only to determine the measurements on drawings, but also to determine possible connections with other variables, such as personal traits of participants and formal traits of the space, according to the research goals of particular scientific studies for which the CogMap Analyst program shall be used. In this article we present the theoretical basis for the tool that we have created, we compare its characteristics with other similar methods of quantitative analysis of sketch drawings of cognitive maps, and we present in detail the mode of operation and of data analysis employed by CogMap Analyst.