Qualitative aspects of cognitive distance in urban space in relation to daily movement behavior: A case study of university students in Kanazawa

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze qualitative aspects of cognitive distance in urban space considering their relationship with context-dependency. Data used in this study were obtained from 181 university students in Kanazawa City. After examining the theoretical basis of the qualitative cognitive distance in a large-scale space in accordance with cognitive linguistics, I assumed that the dichotomy of small-scale space around the body between "the space that can be reached by a limb" and "the space that can be seen but not reached" becomes a prototype of qualitative cognitive distance in a large-scale space, being metaphorically interrelated with those two spaces. Based on this assumption, we examined the relationship between qualitative cognitive distance drawn from university students in Kanazawa City and their contexts of daily movement behavior. An analysis of the relationship between the context of daily movement behavior and qualitative cognitive distance using Hayashi's Quantification Theory III revealed that action space in the city is divided into a "close phase" (i. e., visited frequently and contacted directly), and a "far phase" (i. e., rarely visited or contacted), both of which are metaphorically related to the dichotomy of small-scale space between "the space that can be reached by a limb" and "the space that can be seen but not reached." Since frequency of visits, mobility, and relative position among residence and destinations strongly influence the "close phase" and "far phase," qualitative cognitive distance in urban space is considered to be affected by these contexts of daily movement behavior. Namely, the frequency of visits defines the similarity between "close phase," "far phase," and the space around the body; moreover, mobility and relative position among residence and destinations define a range of both the "close phase" and the "far phase".