Collaborative: Mapping Behavior as a Cultural Universal

协作：将行为映射为文化普遍性

• 批准号: 9906418
• 负责人: David Stea
• 金额: $ 8.3万
• 依托单位: Texas State University - San Marcos
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-08-01 至 2002-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9906418&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Mapping; Behavior; Cultural; Universal

This ongoing program of research probes the hypothesis that mapping behavior is displayed by essentially all people in all cultures. More specifically, the theory suggests that the making and use of map-like models (defined as material artifacts or groups of artifacts which represent geographical landscapes as viewed from overhead, reduced in scale, and depicted with abstract or iconic signs) should be characteristic of all contemporary and past cultures. In addition, an untaught ability to make, read, and use simple map-like models should be displayed by very young children in all cultures. Four experiments will explore preschool-age children's spatial knowledge and mapping ability. Study 1 examines 4-year-olds' ability to construct map-like landscapes using small models depicting environmental objects, comparing individual and group behavior and determining whether modeling behavior precedes ability to express such behavior using natural language. Study 2 replicates Study 1 in a contrasting cultural setting--a peasant village in Oaxaca, Mexico. Study 3 will determine whether Texan children aged 4 and 5 can use a simple iconic map to solve a navigation problem in a 1-hectare-size macro-geographic landscape. Study 4 will discover whether 4- and 5-year-olds in Chicago can understand the semantic dimension of mapping by testing these children's ability to interpret and use self-defined map-signs in landscape modeling. A fifth, supplementary study extends earlier exploration of archaeological and ethnographic reports of mapping behavior. In order to find out how people manage to understand, cope with, and get around in large, geographical environments, it is necessary to study the way people of all ages and cultures make and use map-like models (depicting the landscape as though seen from overhead). The study of this phenomenon is cross-disciplinary, extending from geography (cultural ecology) to environmental psychology and anthropology. Until recently it was widely believed that children do not acquire this ability until the age of about 7 and that the mapping ability is not found everywhere. In more recent research, the present investigators and others have shown, in several contrasting cultures, that 3-5-year-old children possess significant map-making and map-using abilities. Preschool-age children can read aerial photographs without instruction and can construct map-like landscapes in play. This project proposes to go well beyond earlier research to examine other dimensions of young children's mapping. It involves study of social and cultural factors in young children's mapping, of the relation of mapping to ordinary language and to the use of abstract map-signs, and of young children's utilization of semi-pictorial maps in wayfinding in large environments. The research will contribute to understanding the development of environmental cognition and behavior in young children. It should have considerable significance for primary education in the sciences: if preschool children already possess basic mapping abilities, then kindergarten and early elementary education can be broadened, and enriched, to encompass macro-scale, map-scale, concepts and theories in physical, biological, and social science (for instance, land and water forms, ecosystems, urban structure, and location systems), concepts that are usually taught only to much older children under the wrong assumption that children of school-entering age do not have natural mapping abilities.

这项正在进行的研究项目探讨了一个假设，即映射行为基本上是所有文化中的所有人都表现出来的。 更具体地说，该理论认为，制作和使用类似地图的模型（定义为从头顶上观看的物质人工制品或人工制品组，它们代表地理景观，缩小比例，并用抽象或标志性符号描绘）应该是所有当代和过去文化的特征。 此外，在所有文化中，幼儿都应该具备制作、阅读和使用简单的地图模型的能力。四个实验将探讨学龄前儿童的空间知识和制图能力。研究1考察了4岁儿童使用描绘环境对象的小模型构建地图式景观的能力，比较了个体和群体行为，并确定建模行为是否先于使用自然语言表达这种行为的能力。研究2在一个对比鲜明的文化环境中复制了研究1--墨西哥瓦哈卡的一个农民村庄。 研究3将确定德克萨斯州4岁和5岁的儿童是否可以使用简单的图标地图来解决1公顷大小的宏观地理景观中的导航问题。研究4将通过测试芝加哥4- 5岁儿童在景观建模中对自定义地图符号的理解和使用能力，来探讨儿童是否能够理解地图的语义维度。第五，补充研究扩展了早期的考古和民族志报告的映射行为的探索。为了弄清楚人们是如何理解、科普和在大的地理环境中走动的，有必要研究不同年龄和文化背景的人制作和使用类似地图的模型的方式（就像从头顶上看到的那样描绘景观）。 对这一现象的研究是跨学科的，从地理学（文化生态学）延伸到环境心理学和人类学。直到最近，人们普遍认为，儿童直到7岁左右才获得这种能力，而且这种映射能力并不是到处都能找到的。在最近的研究中，目前的研究人员和其他人已经表明，在几个对比鲜明的文化中，3-5岁的儿童具有显着的地图制作和地图使用能力。 学龄前儿童可以在没有指导的情况下阅读航空照片，并可以在游戏中构建地图般的景观。本项目建议超越早期的研究，审查幼儿绘图的其他方面。它涉及的社会和文化因素在幼儿的映射，映射到日常语言和抽象的地图符号的使用的关系的研究，以及幼儿的利用半图画地图在大环境中寻路。本研究将有助于理解幼儿环境认知和行为的发展。它对小学科学教育具有重大意义：如果学龄前儿童已经具备基本的制图能力，那么幼儿园和早期基础教育就可以扩大和丰富，包括宏观尺度、地图尺度、物理学、生物学和社会科学的概念和理论（例如，土地和水的形态、生态系统、城市结构和位置系统），这些概念通常只教给年龄大得多的儿童，错误地假设学龄儿童没有自然的绘图能力。