Analysis of spatial memory in the context of secondary schools

The relation between humans and the environment is a prominent research topic in many basic disciplines as geography, phenomenology, philosophy, psychology and interdisciplinary fields as environmental psychology, ecological psychology or urban sociology. In the scope of these researches the environment is designated both as place or space. In phenomenology theories space is the foundation of 'place' and it is accepted that every type of 'space' has entered the process of becoming a 'place' since the moment it began to be experienced by an individual. In other words, spaces are designated as places since they are transferred from a human's perception to his/her memory; and this transfer is basically achieved by attributing various meanings to the experienced space. In the frame of human-place relations there are three main approaches that investigate the concepts of space or place: psychometrics, phenomenological/humanistic and social constructivism. All of these theoretical approaches evaluate space and place concepts through consistent, similar or parallel propositions. Within this scope environmental psychology theories place concept is discussed through the affective, cognitive, social and behavioral dimensions of human-place relations. On the other hand, perception and cognition theories investigate how the spatial data is perceived, coded, stored, recalled and which parts of the brain are involved in this processes. Within these theories developmental stages, short term memory, long term memory, episodic memory, autobiographical memory and spatial memory are the most related research areas. Besides, in the scope of phenomenological theories, it is considered that place has an integrated, mutually dependent and reflective relationship with humans; and it is studied through concepts like place attachment, immersion, empathetic insideness, and existential insideness. Moreover, in the scope of architectural theories, which also includes this study, place is discussed over its physical component, the architectural space, through constructivist, symbolic, holistic and non-verbal communication approaches. The starting point of this thesis is the concepts of place and space. Within the theoretical background; environmental psychology, architecture and cognitive psychology theories are gathered around the spatial memory concept in order to evaluate human-place relations in an integrated frame. In this context, the case study has searched the possible answers to the question "Why do/don't I remember this place?" by focusing on a specific architectural space and the memory of its participants. A multidimensional methodology is designed to discuss the effects of spatial factors and human factors on spatial memory over different dimensions of human-place relations. In conclusion, the case study has investigated the change of spatial memory due to (1) the functional, imageable, syntactic characteristics of the spaces; (2) the affective and social dimensions of human-place relations and (3) the age, sex and form of education of the participants. The case study is conducted on the Düyun-u Umumiye building which is the premises of Istanbul High School since 1933. 25 women and 52 men whom had educated in this school building have attended to the study. The spatial data of the study is collected with spatial analyses and the spatial memory data of the study is collected with personal interviews and cognitive maps. In the scope of spatial analyses the spatial components of the building are defined through imageability categories, functional categories and syntactic accessibility and isovist measures. The five imageability categories are defined over Lynch's (2010) imageability categories and six functional categories are defined by considering the widely accepted educational building programs in the 21st century. Moreover, the syntactic integration, connectivity, isovist area, isovist perimeter and compactness values of each spatial component is calculated with Syntax 2D software. In personal interviews the spaces recalled in first order, the spaces recalled in first three order (total recall), the spaces recalled through place attachment (subjective recall) and the spaces recalled through social attachment (social recall) are questioned with four different questions. In addition, the participants are asked to draw the plan schemas of the ground and first floors of the building to collect the cognitive map data. In the first step of spatial memory analyses, the recall counts of (1) spatial components, (2) functional categories and (3) imageability categories are counted in the contexts of recall in first order, total recall, subjective recall (place attachment) and social recall (social attachment) separately. In the second step of the spatial memory analyses, each cognitive map's justified graph is constituted and (1) the number of recalled spatial components, (2) depth, (3) total depth and (4) mean depth values are calculated. And in the last step, the depiction count of specific spatial components in cognitive maps are determined. The relationship between spatial memory and spatial factors are searched through (1) the distribution of the recall counts of functional and imageability categories in the scopes of recalled in first order, total recall, subjective recall and social recall, (2) the correlation tests between the recall counts and syntactic values of spatial components, and (3) the correlation tests between the depiction count of spaces in cognitive maps and their syntactic measures. On the other hand, the relations between spatial memory and human factors are searched through One-way ANOVA tests between the number of the recalled spatial components, depth, total depth and mean depth values of cognitive maps and the age, sex and form of education of the participants. Regarding the results, the imageability characteristics of spaces are found to be the predominant factors over recalling a space in the first place and over developing place attachment towards a space. The visual and formal features of architectural spaces that differentiate them from other spaces are the features that first came into mind. On the other hand, these features raise specific emotions and generate the feelings of place attachment. In this regard the main entrance hall is the most recalled space in the case study. In addition to that, the social characteristics of the spaces are found to be second significant factors (1) on recalling a space in the first order and (2) on developing place attachment towards a space. Following the entrance hall, the participants have recalled the social focal points as dormitory, canteen, gymnasium and other collective spaces as classrooms and schoolyard through their social experiences. Moreover, the case study results has shown that the syntactic characteristics of spaces have significant relationships with (1) the recalling of spaces through social attachment and (2) the depiction of spaces in cognitive maps. The precondition of social attachment is a space that offers a proper area for social activities. In this study, the integration, connectivity, isovist area and isovist perimeter values of spaces have appeared to be related to how much a space contributes to the social interaction of the students. The most accessible and integrated spaces support different types of socializing activities like walking together, playing football or chatting. These are the spaces that are preferred for and identified with social activities more than the other ones, and consequently they are the most remembered spaces through social attachment. On the other hand, it is found that there is a significant relationship between the spaces' integration, connectivity and isovist area values and their depiction in cognitive maps. This finding presents that cognitive maps are built upon the spaces' properties of relative relation, size and position; and in addition to that, the border line or shape of the spaces are not stored in cognitive maps. These two basic results are important findings as they present that space syntax methods are suitable tools for spatial memory researches, and that there is a strong relationship between the social and syntactic characteristics of spaces. Also in the context of spatial characteristics, the functional characteristics are found to be effective on spatial memory. The main entrance hall that is experienced everyday by every student is the most recalled space in the case study. In addition, the open spaces and supporting spaces of social activities are found to be the most recalled spaces in the context of social attachment. Function is a spatial characteristic that is inherent to an architectural space and define the components, materials, plan schemas, size, position or form of experience. Depending on this fact, functional characteristics are appeared as preliminary factors that take effect through other spatial characteristics. On the other hand this fact that regards to the relations between spatial characteristics is not in the scope and did not investigated in the scope of the case study. Analyses that focus on place attachment and social attachment have resulted with two significant findings. First of all, it is found that the positive emotional bonds that define place attachment are mostly related to the perception of the visual/morphological characteristics of a space. Besides, the social environment offered/supported/surrounded by this space is found to be the second significant factor over place attachment. On the other hand, in the context of social attachment, it is understood that the social environment is not the only feature that effects the social attachment to a space. The integration and visibility properties of a space also show significant relationships with the social environment of a space and this reflects to the social attachment to that space. The correlations between the human factors and spatial memory show that spatial memory has a significant relationship with age; and does not have any significant relationships with sex and form of education. The significant results present that the number of the recalled spaces in a cognitive map decreases as the participants' age, or in other words the time passed over the experience increases. In addition, the depth, total depth and mean depth values decrease as the age of the participant increases and the participants have recalled shallower spatial configurations as they grew older. Hence, it is understood that after a period of time participants forgot some components of the spatial systems, mostly the ones located in the deeper parts, and the structure of the existing spatial configuration in their memory transforms into a shallower one. On the other hand, this variance in the recalling performance of participants' spatial memories is not linear. The difference between the young adult and middle age groups are bigger than the difference between the middle age and old groups. This indicates that there is a threshold in spatial memory around the age of 40. This result is important in the context of autobiographical memory researches for presenting that the period around the age of 40 is not only a less recalled period for old people but also a period where the recalling performance of memory changes significantly. Besides, the correlations between gender and spatial memory show that the syntactic structure of the cognitive maps does not change according to the gender of the participants. The spatial memory performances of women and men are in very close levels. In this case, it is interpreted that other human factors (such as level of education) are more effective on spatial memory and they may have reduced the potential effect of gender on spatial memory. Furthermore, the correlations between form of education and spatial memory also show that the spatial memory performance does not differ between the boarding students and day students. This result indicates that time of residence or residing a space does not effect the feelings of place attachment or recalling a space in more detail. But it is possible to claim that the minimum period of spatial experience of all participants (4 years of day education) was enough to build a strong place attachment to the school building and developing the most efficient cognitive maps of its plan schemas. In the context of educational buildings, the significant results of the case study show that the educational buildings are one of the primary places where the individual establishes an affective bond, place attachment. The spaces that the students are attached in İstanbul Erkek Lisesi building are appeared as (1) circulation spaces that transform into focal points by their imageability characteristics, and (2) supporting spaces that transform into focal points by their social characteristics and classrooms. In addition, the circulation spaces and other central spaces that have the highest integration values are the most depicted spaces in cognitive maps. These findings show that the visual/formal, social, functional and syntactic characteristics of educational buildings are effective on establishing positive emotional bonds to these spaces, on the legibility of plan schemas and their transfer to the cognitive maps. In other words, these characteristics are the primary factors that shape students' spatial perception, experience and memory. As a result the significant result show that, (1) the legibility of the spatial configuration, (2) the sustentation of social interaction and (2) inclosing/presenting visually differentiated architectural elements/spaces should be prominent factors in the educational building design processes. The results of the case study clearly show that the spatial memory can vary depending on different spatial characteristics and human factors. Spatial memory does not function as a passive recording device. It focuses on specific features of spaces, such as the visual characteristics, the social environment or the emotions emerge during an experience. This also reveals that certain characteristics of a space have stronger influences on recalling that space. In this case study; functional, imageable and social qualities had come to the forefront when focused on affective memories; and functional, social and syntactic qualities come to the forefront when focused on social memories. Therefore, the dimensions of human-place relationships are also have an effect upon which spatial information is recalled. At this point, the results showing that (1) place attachment is related to the visual/formal qualities of the spaces and (2) social attachment is related to the morphological qualities of the spaces are important findings that should also be evaluated separately in the context of human-place relationships. On the other hand, in the context of human factors, this study has presented that the age of an individual has a significant effect upon the recalled spatial information and that the beginning of the middle age is a more critical period in this context. Besides, this study has also presented that gender and the form of education have no significant effect on the students' spatial memory. In conclusion, the most fundamental output of this study is that each of these results pass beyond being a scientific identification and they present significant data that may contribute to our perception of existence.