Images of the World: Mental Maps of U.S. Military Officers
Abstract
Cognitive maps are an accumulation of a person's knowledge of the physical arrangements of continents and of the various political and cultural landscapes of the world. This project is premised upon the belief that people comprehend and arrange the world in terms relative to their own experience. Further, it is based upon the theory that there is a relationship between a person's thoughts and their actions. Specifically this study examines the mental maps of the officers from the United States Air Force, Navy and Army. The images of the world as perceived by the cadets, from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, are also part of this project. Two hundred surveys were mailed and one hundred thirty-four were returned for a sixty-seven percent response rate. The tabulation of data from the surveys provided central tendencies and standard deviations for each group. This information was used to construct composite mental maps for each group. The maps not only displayed the geographic characteristics of the countries, (the direction, distance, and size; all relative to the U.S.) but the maps also indicate the groups' composite geopolitical judgments of the studied countries.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA251436
Entities
People
- Peter R. Baker