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Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality: An Empirical

Study
Caspar G. Chorus a;Harry J. P. Timmermans b
a
Department of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, The
Netherlands b Department of Urban Planning, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Online publication date: 25 March 2010

To cite this Article Chorus, Caspar G. andTimmermans, Harry J. P.(2010) 'Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental
Map Quality: An Empirical Study', Journal of Urban Design, 15: 2, 211 — 226
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 Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 15. No. 2, 211–226, May 2010

Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map

Quality: An Empirical Study

CASPAR G. CHORUS* & HARRY J. P. TIMMERMANS**

*Department of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology,
The Netherlands; **Department of Urban Planning, Eindhoven University of Technology,
The Netherlands

ABSTRACT This paper presents the results of an empirical study into the role of travel
behaviour and socio-demographic factors as determinants of mental map quality. Several
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interesting findings are reported. In line with previous research, conducted in quite
different urban contexts, the study finds that travelling by means of active modes,
requiring active navigation of the traveller, leads to higher quality mental maps. Strong
effects are found for both the car and bicycle modes (relative to the more passive bus-mode).
Furthermore, there appears to be a rather strong correspondence between the stated
(or: perceived) and revealed (or: actual) quality of people’s mental maps. This
correspondence is particularly strong among women and non-residents of the study area.

Introduction
The study of mental maps—or from here on: cognitive constructions of urban
space—has been central to the field of Human Geography and Environmental
Psychology for many years (e.g. Tolman, 1948; Kuipers, 1982; Ramadier & Moser,
1998; Loukaitou-Sideris & Gilbert, 2000). The field of study is relevant for urban
design in that it can be used for the ex ante and ex post evaluation of urban design
from the perspective of spatial cognition and navigation. This literature has
suggested that urban morphology and its key constituent elements determine the
formation of cognitive constructions of space. For example, Lynch (1960) indicates
that the contents of city images can be classified into five types of elements: paths,
edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. None of these element types exist alone;
together they make up configurations of space and morphologies. A determinant
view is that cognitive maps are formed by recognizing distinctive features in the
environment which provide cognitive cues around which other information is
anchored (e.g. Couclelis et al., 1987).
Recently the specific interrelations between the quality of these constructions
and travel behaviour (people’s choices for travel modes and routes, and their
frequency of travel) have also gained increasing attention (e.g. Arentze &
Timmermans, 2003, 2005; Golledge & Gärling, 2004; Hannes et al., 2006, 2008;
Mondschein et al., in press). This more recent stream of research has provided
Correspondence Address: Caspar G. Chorus, Department of Technology, Policy and
Management, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. PO Box 5015, 2600 GA
Delft, The Netherlands . Email: c.g.chorus@tudelft.nl

1357-4809 Print/1469-9664 Online/10/020211-16 q 2010 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13574801003638095
 212 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

evidence, both theoretical and empirical, supporting the claim that in order to
properly understand peoples’ cognitive constructions of urban space, it is
necessary to understand their travel behaviour and vice versa (e.g. Weston &
Handy, 2004). Travel behaviour can be viewed as having a mediating role between
the structural properties of space, as articulated in landmarks and physical
networks, and cognitive representations.
It has been suggested that, next to the quality of urban space itself, the
quality of cognitive constructions of urban space is an important co-determinant
of accessibility: if a person is unaware of a particular destination, or does not
know how to reach it, the destination becomes de facto inaccessible (e.g. Kwan &
Weber, 2003; Chorus & Timmermans, 2009; Mondschein et al., in press). In this
context, it is increasingly acknowledged that cognitive constructions of urban
space play an important role in shaping activity-patterns (e.g. Arentze &
Timmermans, 2003; Hannes et al., 2006, 2008). For example, Horning et al. (2008)
concluded that the perceived availability of nearby opportunities (e.g. for doing
groceries) influences travellers’ inclination to walk or cycle. Dziekan (2008)
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argued that the absence of an adequate cognitive construction of a transit system

potentially hampers travellers’ transit ridership. This is in line with the empirical
finding that regular car-drivers on average perceive their knowledge of the
transit system to be very unreliable and inaccurate (Chorus et al., 2007a). Arentze
& Timmermans (2005) showed how travellers’ inclination to improve the quality
of their cognitive constructions of urban space may lead them to choose routes
and locations not visited before in a variety of a seeking-based Bayesian learning
process. As a final example, a recent study has shown how a limited quality of a
person’s cognitive construction of urban space, in terms of not being aware of
travel alternatives and their characteristics (e.g. travel times), heavily affects
travel choice quality (Chorus et al., 2007b). In addition, it has been shown how
these quality limitations lead to the acquisition of travel information among
travellers (Chorus et al., 2006, 2007b).
Surprisingly, as these examples show, the role of the cognitive constructions
of urban space as a determinant of travel choice behaviour has received much
more attention than the role of travel choice behaviour as a determinant of
cognitive constructions of urban space. This difference in attention particularly
holds for empirical research and is at odds with the multitude of theoretical
suggestions that travel behaviour—whether it is in the form of, for example, route
choice, destination choice, or travel information acquisition—plays a potentially
very important role in helping shape travellers’ cognitive constructions of urban
space (e.g. Weston & Handy, 2004; Arentze & Timmermans, 2005; Chorus et al.,
2006; Chorus & Timmermans, 2009).
The authors of this paper know of only two notable exceptions: first,
Mondschein et al. (in press) empirically assessed to what extent travel mode-
choice behaviour influences the quality and shape of travellers’ cognitive
constructions of (parts of) Los Angeles, California. They “find preliminary
evidence that travel mode affects how individuals perceive the built environment,
both in how they estimate distance and in the relative refinement of their cognitive
maps”. For example, they find that travellers using ‘passive modes’ (which they
define as modes that do not require the traveller to navigate his or her way
through the city themselves, such as transit) on average overestimate the distance
of landmarks when compared to travellers using ‘more active modes’ such as
the car.1 In the context of another exercise (involving choosing the closer of two
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 213

well-known destinations), passive-travel mode users scored worse than users of

active modes, and the difference was more pronounced among those residents
living in LA for less than five years. The authors conclude from their analyses that
travel mode choice-behaviour appears to play an important role in shaping (the
quality of) cognitive constructions of urban space. Second, in another, less recent
study, Appleyard (1970, p. 113) surveyed inhabitants of the Venezuelan town of
Ciudad Guyana and asked them to draw a map of the city they lived in. He found
that “Of the subjects who travelled only by bus, eighty percent were unable to
draw a coherent map of the urban road system. All the maps found in this group
were either scattered or fragmented”, while “All the maps drawn by the selected
group of car-only travellers presented a coherent and continuous system”.
This paper aims to contribute to this small body of empirical literature on the
impact of travel behaviour in general, and travel mode choice-behaviour in
particular, on the quality of people’s cognitive constructions of urban space. First,
the study investigates whether Mondschein et al.’s and Appleyard’s findings can
be replicated in the context of a quite different population: the sample used
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consists of students of Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands).

Since travelling by bicycle (an active mode) is very popular among Dutch
students, this sample complements Mondschein et al.’s LA-based sample as well
as Appleyard’s Venezuelan sample where car was the dominant ‘active mode’. In
terms of the number of inhabitants (a proxy for geographical size), the town of
Eindhoven (210 000) lies between Ciudad Guyana (30 000 at the time of study) and
LA (3 850 000), a difference that provides a means of assessing the general
applicability of the findings reported in Mondschein et al. (in press) and
Appleyard (1970). In addition, in terms of data-collection methodology, the study
complements those described above. Whereas Mondschein’s study mainly used
people’s verbal descriptions of LA’s geographical structure as the unit of analysis,
and Appleyard used people’s visual representations of Ciudad Guyana’s
structure, the present study employs—among other things—a quiz containing
explicit questions concerning Eindhoven’s layout.
As a second contribution, besides an assessment of how socio-demographic
factors in combination with travel (mode-choice) behaviour affect the revealed, or
objectively measurable, quality of people’s cognitive constructions of urban space,
the study also examines their impact on the stated, or perceived, quality of
people’s cognitive constructions of urban space. That is, respondents were asked
about how they themselves would assess the quality of their cognitive conception
of Eindhoven. These variables are related in this paper to socio-demographic
factors and travel (mode-choice) behaviour. In addition, travellers’ stated
evaluations of their cognitive constructions of urban space are related to their
revealed quality. The result is a study that builds on and contributes to recent
empirical literature describing the impact of travel behaviour on the quality of
people’s cognitive constructions of urban space.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. The next section presents
questions asked in the survey in relation to assumptions and hypotheses
concerning how socio-demographic factors in combination with travel behaviour
affect the revealed and stated quality of people’s cognitive constructions of urban
space.2 The following section describes the data-collection effort and presents
response group characteristics. The fourth section presents the empirical analyses
and the final section derives conclusions and notes the limitations of the current
study.
 214 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

Survey

Underlying Conceptualizations
Figure 1 provides a simple conceptualization of the relations (arrows) that are
perceived to be of particular relevance given the scope of this paper. It refers to the
different subsections where these relations are the subject of empirical analysis.
Solid arrows represent the subjects of the analyses presented in the following
sections, whereas dotted arrows represent relations that are likely to be relevant,
but could not be studied here given data limitations. The next subsection provides
an operationalization of these concepts.
In line with intuition and earlier empirical studies (Appleyard, 1970;
Mondschein et al., in press), it is hypothesized that the quality of a cognitive
construction of urban space may be influenced by socio-demographic and travel
behaviour-related variables. The creation of cognitive maps implies that
knowledge about the built environment is stored in memory, rehearsed and
retrieved when people are asked to report aspects of their cognitive representation
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of space. The strength of the memory trace and the accuracy of the cognitive
constructions are not influenced by elements of space such as landmarks,
disruptions in the urban fabric and other main elements. To rehearse and update
cognitive representations, travel seems an important factor.
As mentioned in the introduction, the study distinguishes between stated (or:
perceived) and revealed (or: actual) cognitive constructions of urban space. It is
hypothesized that the stated quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban
space is influenced by the quality of his or her actual cognitive construction, in
addition to being influenced by socio-demographic and travel behaviour-related
variables. It is hypothesized that the revealed (or: actual) quality of a person’s
cognitive constructions of urban space is influenced by socio-demographic and
travel behaviour-related variables, but not by stated quality. In a sense, the stated

Figure 1. Conceptualized determinants of the quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban

space
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 215

quality of a cognitive construction of urban space is conceived as a subjective

measurement of actual (revealed) quality.
Referring to the dotted arrows which represent the relations that will not be
tested in this paper, it should be noted that socio-demographic factors and travel
behaviour are likely to be interrelated (e.g. Chorus et al., 2007b). This study will
control for variation in socio-demographic factors when examining the impact of
travel behaviour on the cognitive constructions of space, and vice versa. However,
the study of these interrelations themselves is beyond the scope of this paper.

Operationalization of Concepts
This section shows how the following concepts were measured: ‘stated quality of a
person’s cognitive construction of urban space’, ‘revealed quality of a person’s
cognitive construction of urban space’, ‘socio-demographics’ and ‘travel
behaviour’.
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Stated quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban space. Respondents3 were

asked three questions concerning the stated quality of their cognitive construction
of urban space: first, they were asked how good they were at finding their way
around Eindhoven. Answer categories were: ‘poor’ (1 point); ‘reasonable’
(2 points); ‘good’ (3; and ‘very good’ (4). The average score was 2.3 (standard
deviation: 0.80), implying that on average respondents state that they perform
slightly better than ‘reasonable’ in finding their way around Eindhoven. Second,
respondents were asked to indicate the percentage of Eindhoven for which they
thought they had a fairly detailed overview. Response categories were ‘less than
25%’ (1 point), ‘between 25% and 75%’ (2 points) and ‘more than 75%’ (3). The
average score was 1.58 (standard deviation: 0.59). Third, respondents were asked
whether they felt that Eindhoven was ‘easy to understand’ in terms of its lay-out.4
Response categories were ‘very difficult’ (1 point); ‘difficult’ (2 points); ‘not easy,
not difficult’ (3); ‘easy’ (4 points); and ‘very easy’ (5). The average score was 3.10
(standard deviation: 0.81), implying that respondents conceive Eindhoven’s
layout as being moderately difficult.
It was felt that the three questions were likely to relate to different aspects of
the stated quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban space, therefore the
decision was taken not to add these items together in a composite scale, but to
treat them as separate measurements in the remainder of this paper.

Revealed quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban space. The revealed

quality of respondents’ cognitive construction of urban space was measured in
terms of their total score on three quiz-questions. First, respondents were asked to
associate the names of Eindhoven’s five largest neighbourhoods with
numbers located on a map that only showed Eindhoven’s most well-known
streets (Figure 2). Because the town of Eindhoven has grown since World War II,
by adding distinct neighbourhoods to the municipality (in fact, these
neighbourhoods used to constitute villages, largely separated from the other
neighbourhoods), each of these neighbourhoods has a quite distinct character.
Second, respondents were asked to position five landmarks5 that are well
known to Eindhoven’s inhabitants, in terms of whether the landmark was
positioned ‘in front of’, ‘behind’, ‘to the left of’ or ‘to the right of’ Eindhoven’s
 216 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

Figure 2. Respondents were asked to locate neighbourhoods (left panel) on an abstract map of
Eindhoven (right panel)

Central Railway station (when standing with one’s back to the railway station, in
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front of the main entrance).

Third, respondents were asked to connect five other extraordinary buildings6
to numbered locations on a map that only showed Eindhoven’s main streets, the
railway and the River ‘De Dommel’ (see Figure 3). In total, a maximum of 15
points could be scored on this test (5 points per question). On average,
respondents scored 10.7 points (3.53 per question), with a standard deviation of
3.50. Cronbach’s alpha equalled 0.714, and could not be improved by removing

Figure 3. Respondents were asked to connect five other extraordinary buildings to numbered locations
on an abstract map of Eindhoven
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 217

questions. This signals that adding together the three scores produces a fairly
reliable scale. This summed score is conceived to represent the revealed quality of
a respondent’s cognitive construction of Eindhoven’s urban space.
Before moving on to the measurement of socio-demographics and travel
behaviour, it should be noted that the operationalization of the quality of cognitive
constructions of urban space is directed towards measuring what Appleyard
(1970, p. 113) defined as a topological and positional approach to people’s
construction of space. The topological approach “depends on continuity and
juncture of movement and character”, while the positional approach “emphasizes
spatial placement, direction and distance”. The data do not allow for an in-depth
treatment of the associational approach, defined in Appleyard as an approach
which “depends on the differentiation, association, and patterning of functional,
social or physical character”. Referring to the types of cognitive constructions of
urban space, the operationalization concentrates on what Appleyard calls the
spatial elements of maps (individual buildings, landmarks, or districts), rather
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than focusing on so-called sequential elements (roads). It is thought that

particularly these spatial elements are important in order to understand the
relationship between cognitive constructions and travel.

Socio-demographics and travel behaviour. Table 1 shows the variables used to

measure relevant socio-demographic and travel behaviour-related factors. Socio-
demographic factors that were included in the analyses are: gender, year of birth,
whether or not a respondent is an Architecture student, whether or not, and for
how long, someone has been a resident of Eindhoven, and how often someone
inspects a map of Eindhoven. Travel behaviour-related factors that were included
in the analyses are: the number of trips made within the town of Eindhoven per
week, and the average duration of these trips. In addition, the predominant mode
used for performing these trips is also measured.

Table 1. Independent variables

Variable Description

Gender 0 ¼ female, 1 ¼ male

Year_birth Year of birth
Department 0 ¼ other, 1 ¼ Architecture student
Resident 0 ¼ not a resident of Eindhoven, 1 ¼ resident of Eindhoven
Resident_long Number of years residing in Eindhoven (0 ¼ no resident)
Inspect_map 1 ¼ I have never inspected a map of Eindhoven
2 ¼ I have not inspected a map of Eindhoven recently
3 ¼ I inspect a map of Eindhoven every now and then
4 ¼ I inspect a map of Eindhoven on a regular basis
Number_trips Number of trips made within the town of Eindhoven per weeka
Duration_trips Average duration of these trips
Car_trip b I mostly take the car for these trips (0 ¼ No, 1 ¼ Yes)
Bicycle_trip I mostly take the bicycle for these trips (0 ¼ No, 1 ¼ Yes)
Walk_trip I mostly walk these trips (0 ¼ No, 1 ¼ Yes)

Notes: aStudents were asked to exclude trips made to and from the university campus.
b
Taking the bus (a passive travel mode) serves as a base-case. Car, bike and walking serve as dummy-
variables.
 218 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

Data-Collection and Response Group Characteristics

Sample
Given the aim of examining the functional relationships between characteristics of
urban cognitive constructions and travel, it is important to have sufficient
variability in cognitive representation. Therefore, it was decided to use a sample
among an otherwise relatively homogeneous group of people. Students are
particularly suitable because they are of a similar age, but differ in terms of the
length of their stay in their university city and their use of travel mode. Data were
collected by means of a paper-and-pencil survey administered in October 2006.
Respondents were all students of Eindhoven University of Technology. Assuming
that students of Architecture and Urban Design may be more sensitive or trained
more in spatial concepts, students in this Faculty were over-sampled. Recruiting
and interviewing took place on the university campus as well as in
accommodation. Respondents were offered no money or other incentive for
participation, as completing the survey only took about 10 minutes. They were
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told upfront that the aim of the survey was to gain insight into how people form a
cognitive image of Eindhoven over the course of their studies at the Eindhoven
University of Technology. A total of 576 completed surveys were collected.

Sample Characteristics
Table 2 shows sample characteristics in terms of socio-demographics and some
relevant travel behaviour-related factors. Of course, given the choice to select

Table 2. Response group characteristics

Variable Frequency (total ¼ 576)

Gender
Male 401
Female 175
Age
17 , age # 20 111
20 , age # 25 387
25 , age # 30 42
Study
Architecture 331
Other 245
Residence
Eindhoven 414
Other 162
Number of trips made within the town of Eindhoven per week a
0 , # trips # 2 193
3 , # trips # 5 242
5 , # trips # 10 59
10 , # trips 82
Most used travel mode for these trips
Bus 53
Car/Motorbike 30
Bicycle/Scooter 371
Walking 122

Note: aStudents were asked to exclude trips made to and from the university campus.
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 219

students, the sample is by no means a random or representative sample of the

Eindhoven population, particularly not in terms of gender, age and education
level. As expected, because respondents were students of the Eindhoven
University of Technology, the sample has a large proportion of relatively highly
educated males in their early twenties. Furthermore, the respondents are likely to
be more captive to the transit mode than the average inhabitant of Eindhoven.
Only a subset of students own a car, while all students are entitled to a public
transport card, allowing them free travel either during weekdays or weekend-
days. As explained, a large percentage (57%) of the respondents were Architecture
and Urban Design students who are likely to differ from the average respondent
in terms of interest in and familiarity with the concept of spatial knowledge.

Empirical Analyses
How Stated Quality Affects Revealed Quality
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Table 3 presents correlations (Pearson) between the three measurements of stated

quality of cognitive construction of urban space, and the summed quiz score
conceived as a measurement of revealed quality. Significance levels (in terms of
p-values) are given between brackets.
Two of the three identified measurements of stated quality correlate very
positively (and very significantly) with each other and with revealed quality:
respondents who consider themselves good wayfinders (in Eindhoven) and state
that they have a good overview of the town, also score higher on the three quiz
questions. Correlations are less pronounced with respect to the variable ‘stated
easy lay-out’. This is not so surprising. Whether Eindhoven is perceived to be
easily understood in terms of its lay-out, probably says more about the town’s
lay-out than about the stated and revealed quality of its inhabitants’ cognitive
constructions of urban space. However, these correlations are significant. In sum,
these correlations show that, on average, respondents have a fairly accurate
assessment of the quality of their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s urban
space: stated quality corresponds rather well with revealed quality.
When comparing different categories of respondents in terms of this
relationship, some interesting findings emerge. First, it appears that women are
more accurate in assessing the quality of their cognitive constructions of
Eindhoven’s urban space than men (correlations between stated and revealed

Table 3. Correlations between stated and revealed quality of a person’s cognitive

construction of urban spacea

Correlations Stated wayfinding Stated overview Stated easy lay-out Revealed quality

Stated wayfinding 1 – – –
Stated overview 0.639 (0.000) 1 – –
Stated easy lay-out 0.183 (0.000) 0.182 (0.000) 1 –
Revealed quality 0.529 (0.000) 0.455 (0.000) 0.104 (0.013) 1

Notes: a‘Stated wayfinding’ refers to the question about finding the way in Eindhoven. ‘Stated
overview’ refers to the question of what percentage of Eindhoven respondents thought they had a
fairly detailed overview. ‘Stated easy lay-out’ refers to the question of whether respondents felt that
Eindhoven was easy to understand in terms of its lay-out. ‘Revealed quality’ refers to the summed
answers to the three quiz questions.
 220 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

quality are stronger for women than for men). While the responses of men and
women on stated quality are almost equal, women score slightly higher than men
in terms of revealed quality. For reasons of space limitations, the paper does not
provide correlations, differences in terms of correlations, and significance levels
here. Second, it appears that students of the Department of Architecture are less
accurate in assessing the quality of their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s
urban space than students from other departments. Architecture students report
lower stated quality-levels than other students, but in fact the revealed quality of
their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s urban space is higher: in other words,
Architecture students appear to be too conservative in terms of assessing the
quality of their cognitive constructions of urban space. Finally, residents of
Eindhoven also appear to be too modest in terms of assessing the quality of their
cognitive constructions of urban space: the stated quality of residents is slightly
higher than of non-residents, but the difference in terms of revealed quality is
much larger (in favour of residents’ revealed quality).
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Socio-demographic and Travel Behaviour-related Determinants of the Revealed Quality of

a Person’s Cognitive Construction of Eindhoven’s Urban Space
A linear regression analysis was conducted between revealed quality and the
independent variables listed in Table 1. Positive (negative) parameter estimates
imply that a high score on the independent variable increases (decreases) the
revealed quality of a respondent’s cognitive construction of Eindhoven’s urban
space as measured in terms of the total score on the three quiz questions. In terms
of the expected effects of the independent variables (socio-demographics and
travel behaviour-related factors) on the revealed quality of a person’s cognitive
construction of Eindhoven’s urban space, positive relations (if any) are expected
for all variables listed in Table 1, except for year of birth and gender. Concerning
year of birth, negative effects are expected. There are no particular ex ante
expectations concerning the effect of gender. Note again that the expectation of
positive effects of the use of active travel modes (car, bicycle, walking) on revealed
quality is based on Mondschein et al.’s (in press) and Appleyard’s (1970) earlier
work on this topic. The effect of possible determinants is analysed by regressing
the revealed quality (conceived as the sum of the three quiz-questions; see second
subsection in the second section) on the independent variables listed in Table 1.
Table 4 (far right panel) provides the estimation results (the constant is omitted).
First, it should be noted that gender does not seem to play a part in terms of
revealed quality. Similarly, age is not a relevant factor. Students at the Department
of Architecture appear to have slightly more accurate cognitive constructions of
Eindhoven’s urban space than students of other departments (however, their
stated quality does not differ significantly from that of other students, as will be
discussed below). Being a resident of Eindhoven (controlling for the number of
years a person has lived in Eindhoven), has an additional and positive effect on
revealed quality. Simply living in a town, even for only a short period of time,
apparently helps the formation of a cognitive construction of urban space of
relatively high quality. However, the effect is only significant at the 90% level.
More substantial, and highly significant, is the positive effect of the number of
years lived in Eindhoven on the revealed quality of a person’s cognitive
construction of Eindhoven’s urban space. Inspecting a map, although beneficial in
the sense that it enhances the feeling of better understanding Eindhoven’s lay-out,
 Downloaded By: [Chorus, Caspar G.] At: 13:02 26 March 2010

Table 4. Determinants of stated and revealed quality of a person’s cognitive construction of Eindhoven’s urban space

Stated wayfinding Stated overview Stated easy lay-out Revealed quality

Variable B SE p- value B SE p- value B SE p- value B SE p- value

Gender 0.069 0.067 0.301 0.003 0.078 0.970 0.037 0.050 0.465 0.069 0.297 0.815
Year_birth 20.039 0.013 0.004 20.008 0.016 0.624 20.035 0.010 0.001 20.062 0.060 0.302
Department 20.031 0.062 0.621 20.105 0.072 0.148 20.074 0.047 0.114 0.774 0.276 0.005
Resident 20.029 0.093 0.756 20.088 0.109 0.418 20.076 0.071 0.286 0.717 0.415 0.085
Resident_long 0.060 0.010 0.000 20.026 0.011 0.020 0.039 0.007 0.000 0.222 0.043 0.000
Inspect_map 20.009 0.037 0.809 0.103 0.043 0.017 20.005 0.028 0.846 0.040 0.164 0.808
Number_trips 0.024 0.006 0.000 0.011 0.007 0.147 0.019 0.005 0.000 0.066 0.028 0.021
Duration_trips 20.001 0.003 0.686 0.003 0.004 0.447 20.002 0.002 0.465 0.010 0.014 0.489
Car_trip 0.325 0.171 0.058 0.520 0.199 0.009 0.316 0.129 0.015 1.914 0.760 0.012
Bicycle_trip 0.321 0.117 0.006 0.196 0.135 0.148 0.185 0.088 0.035 1.287 0.516 0.013
Walk_trip 0.086 0.125 0.494 0.075 0.146 0.607 0.000 0.095 0.998 20.110 0.556 0.844
R-square 0.216 0.201 0.041 0.202
Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality
221
 222 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

does not increase the revealed quality. It is more effective to go out and make
actual trips, as is implied by the estimated positive and significant coefficient for
the variable Number_trips. The duration of trips made does not seem to play an
important role.
To conclude, the effect of travel mode-choices on the revealed quality of
cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s urban space are discussed. In line with
earlier hypotheses and empirical findings (Appleyard, 1970; Mondschein et al., in
press), it can be seen that using active modes, defined as modes that require active
navigation by the traveller, significantly increases the quality of a person’s
construction of urban space. Travelling by car or bicycle, as opposed to travelling
by bus (a more passive mode in the sense of not having to navigate oneself), has a
very substantial, positive effect on revealed quality. Interestingly, the effect of
walking (compared to riding the bus) on revealed quality is by no means
significant.
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Socio-demographic and Travel Behaviour-related Determinants of the Stated Quality of a

Person’s Cognitive Construction of Eindhoven’s Urban Space
The next step involves regressing the stated quality on the listed independent
variables, using linear regression. Positive (negative) parameter estimates imply
that a high score on the independent variable increases (decreases) the
respondent’s stated quality of his/her construction of Eindhoven’s urban space,
measured in terms of the independent variables ‘wayfinding’, ‘overview’ and
‘easy lay-out’ (see second subsection in second section for full descriptions of
these variables). Table 4 (three left panels) shows the estimation results, leaving
out the estimated constants.
A number of relevant results can be found in this Table. First, it appears that
gender has no effect on stated quality, when controlling for all other independent
variables. Second, year of birth has a negative effect (or: age has a positive effect)
on stated quality. Its effect is significant for both ‘wayfinding’ and ‘overview’
measures. Because there is control for the number of years a person lives in
Eindhoven, existence of this separate effect implies that people tend to perceive
the quality of their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s urban space as higher
when they grow older. Note that since age was not found to have an effect on the
revealed quality of a person’s cognitive construction of urban space (see Table 4),
this implies that the older people get, the more they tend to overestimate the
quality of their cognitive construction of Eindhoven’s urban space (note again that
there was control for the number of years living in Eindhoven).
When controlling for the other variables, Architecture students appear to
have a slightly lower stated quality of their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s
urban space than other students, although the effects are insignificant at
conventional levels. Living in Eindhoven has no effect on stated quality, although
the number of years residing in Eindhoven does: the longer a person lives in
Eindhoven, the higher the scores on ‘wayfinding’ and ‘overview’, as expected.
However, the effect on ‘easy lay-out’ is negative and significant, which signals that
Eindhoven’s lay-out in fact becomes perceived as increasingly more difficult over
the years. This is another sign of the distinguished nature of this measurement:
again, it seems that the independent variable says more about Eindhoven’s layout
than about the stated quality of its inhabitants’ cognitive construction of urban
space in general. Inspecting a map on a regular basis does appear to help people
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 223

understand Eindhoven’s lay-out, as the effect is positive and significant. As

expected, people who frequently travel within the town of Eindhoven have more
faith in their cognitive constructions of Eindhoven’s urban space than people who
travel less. The duration of these trips does not seem to have an effect—it is the
number of trips made that is key here.
In terms of the effect of travel mode-choice on stated quality, it appears that
the use of active modes has a positive effect on stated quality, when compared to
using the passive mode (bus). The effects are significant for car and bicycle
(although not for walking), and are strongest for the car-mode.
The models’ reasonable, but not overwhelmingly high, R-squares signal that,
although the variables discussed here seem to play an important role in
determining the stated quality of cognitive constructions of urban space, a
multitude of other factors are also important. In line with the previous
discussions, the R-square of the ‘wayfinding’ and ‘overview’ models are found to
be much higher than that of the ‘easy lay-out’ model.
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Conclusions and Discussion

This paper presents the results of an empirical study into the role of travel
behaviour and socio-demographic factors as determinants of the quality of
people’s cognitive constructions of urban space. The study distinguishes between
stated quality (how accurate does someone think that his or her cognitive
construction of urban space is?) and revealed quality (how accurate is someone’s
cognitive construction of urban space?). Data were collected for 576 students of
the Eindhoven University of Technology, and relations were examined using
univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses. A number of interesting
results were obtained.
First, the analyses support results obtained in other studies (Appleyard, 1970;
Mondschein et al., in press) into the role of travel mode-choice as a determinant of
revealed quality of cognitive constructions of urban space: travelling by means of
active modes, i.e. modes requiring active navigation by the traveller, leads to a
higher quality of cognitive constructions of urban space. Again it should be noted
that the study area (Eindhoven, a Dutch town of 210 000 inhabitants where the
bicycle is the dominant active travel mode) is quite different from the ones
considered in these earlier studies (Ciudad Guyana, a Venezuelan town of 30 000
inhabitants where the car is the dominant active mode and LA, a US city of
3 850 000 inhabitants where the car is also the dominant active mode). Therefore,
the results here suggest that the finding that use of active modes increases the
quality of people’s cognitive constructions of urban space is rather general. Strong
effects are found for both the car and bicycle modes (relative to using the more
passive bus-mode). The contention is that by using these transport modes people
are more involved in their direct environment and can therefore better store their
cognition of the built environment in their memory. However, somewhat
surprisingly, no significant effects are found for walking. Possibly, walking
distances are rather small, prohibiting the formation of accurate cognitive
constructions of larger urban areas, such as the municipality of Eindhoven.
Furthermore, contributions to this literature are made by examining the effect of
using active modes on the stated quality of cognitive constructions of urban space.
The study finds that using active modes increases a person’s perception of the
 224 C. G. Chorus & H. J. P. Timmermans

quality of their construction of urban space. Again, walking does not lead to
significantly better stated quality than riding the bus.
In addition, other new findings are reported. For example, there appears to be
a rather strong link between the stated quality and revealed quality of cognitive
constructions of urban space. However, this link is relatively weak among men
(who overestimate the quality of their cognitive constructions of urban space
compared to women), Architecture students (who underestimate the quality of
their cognitive constructions of urban space compared to students from other
departments) and residents of Eindhoven (who underestimate the quality of their
cognitive constructions of urban space relative to non-residents).
Furthermore, inhabitants of Eindhoven tend to believe that their cognitive
constructions of urban space become more accurate over time, but this is not
supported by actual quality improvements, when controlling for the number of
years someone lives in Eindhoven. Stated quality also increases with the number
of years a person lives in Eindhoven, a finding that is supported by actual
improvements in quality. Inspecting a map on a regular basis does not appear to
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help in improving the revealed quality of a person’s cognitive construction of

Eindhoven’s urban space, although it does make them believe that the city is
relatively easy to navigate. Making trips substantially improves both the stated
and revealed quality, also when controlling for the type of mode used (passive
versus active). The duration of these trips is unimportant; apparently, it is the
number of trips that counts.
If these findings can be further generalized, they have some practical
implications in a variety of application domains. First, many transport planning
policies, for example, those related to accessibility and social exclusion, are often
based on ‘objective’ measures, using information about land use distribution and
transportation network. However, the relationship between the physical world
and behaviour is mediated through a cognitive environment. As evidenced by
among others the present study, the relationship between the physical and the
cognitive environment is non-linear, implying that an analysis of cognitive
constructions of urban space should be beneficial in developing local planning
schemes. Second, for urban planners and designers, the findings of this study
emphasize the importance of the congruence between urban form and the
transportation network, not only in terms of navigation but also in terms of
supporting local markets.

Acknowledgements
This paper has benefited a great deal from very helpful suggestions for
improvement that were made by an anonymous referee. The authors wish to
thank participants of the course ‘Research Skills’ at TU Eindhoven (2006/2007) for
their help in designing the survey and collecting the data.

Notes
1. To facilitate a meaningful comparison in this study, it adopts the same definition of passive modes
(modes that do not require the traveller to navigate his or her way through the city themselves) and
active modes (modes that do require the traveller to navigate his or her way through the city
themselves) that are used in Mondschein et al. (in press). As a referee rightfully notes, these
definitions are different from the meaning usually assigned to the difference between active and
passive travel modes (modes that do or do not require an individual to be physically active).
 Determinants of Stated and Revealed Mental Map Quality 225

2. Given the availability of a number of excellent recent literature reviews concerning both the
formation of people’s cognitive constructions of urban space (e.g. Mark et al., 1999; Horning et al.,
2008) as well as its relation with travel behavior (e.g. Golledge & Gärling, 2004; Weston & Handy,
2004; Mondschein et al., in press), and due to limitations of space, the paper refrains from presenting
a separate in-depth literature review.
3. See the next section for a presentation and discussion of the data-collection effort and response
group characteristics.
4. It should be noted that answers to this question do not necessarily relate to the stated quality of a
person’s cognitive construction of Eindhoven’s urban space. This variable will be treated as an
indirect measure in the remainder of this paper.
5. A large swimming pool, a large family hotel, a large shopping centre, a performing arts facility and
a theatre.
6. The soccer stadium of PSV Eindhoven (B/1); the former headquarters of Philips electronics (C/3);
two museum buildings (the Van Abbe-museum (A/5) and the Evoluon (D/4)); and a water tower
(E/2).

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