Title Kartografiniai elementai vaikų sąmonės žemėlapiuose /
Translation of Title Cartographic analysis of general geographic elements in children’s mental maps.
Authors Beconytė, Giedrė ; Dinh, Vincent ; Ruge, Ralf ; Gaidelytė, Rūta ; Gurjanovaitė, Kristina
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Is Part of Geografija. 2007, t. 43, nr. 1, p. 44-51.. ISSN 1392-1096
Keywords [eng] Cartography ; Maps ; Maps for children ; Geographic information systems
Abstract [eng] The use of scale has been analysed in different aspects. Special attention was paid to the paintings which employ several scales, although they may be not explicitly indicated. This is the way how the author assigns special importance to some territory, stresses the spatial relationship or dependence. Such paintings offer a very good material for the analysis of children’s mental maps (Fig. 2). Very interesting are paintings where the Earth is shown surrounded by the universe or a phantastic space. In many cases they reveal a specific perception of reality. The use of map projection was evaluated according to whether it was originally chosen, copied or interpreted. Paintings with various interpretations of cartographic projections are of the greatest interest when cartographic cognition is concerned. They show that a child is able to apply his cartographic and geographic knowledge for his own purposes. Also, such mental maps often reflect personal evaluations of different territories. On the other hand, the most important paintings for analysis of the contents of children’s mental maps are the ones with originally designed cartographic projections (Fig. 4). The majority of children’s paintings have no cartographic grid at all, but an individual approach to grid-like lines can be noticed in some of them (Fig. 3). It is possible to see a variety of themes within the main idea of the contest: there are specific natural and anthropogenic objects, fantastic spaces and objects shown on children’s maps, they reflect diverse sociopsychological aspects – cultural conflicts, friendship of nations, spatial preferences, etc. (Fig. 5). Such thematic information is generally more pronounced than general geographic and cartographic information and reflects interesting trends of spatial thinking. It opens many possibilities for the future research.
Type Journal article
Language Lithuanian
Publication date 2007