Underlying Regularities to Mental Maps: An Investigation of Relationships among Age, Experience, and Spatial Preferences

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Abstract
Attempts were made to relate respondent characteristics to their stated residential preferences for a range of urban areas. Specifically, it was postulated that preferences are based on information, that direct experience is a major influence on information received, and respondent age affects the structuring of that information. To test these, preference data were collected from 181 Christchurch students of various age groups for 20 urban places. Principal components analyses of the total data matrix and of various sub‐matrices defined by age groups and experience of the various places indicated substantial differences between the groups. Partial ordinal correlations indicated few clear relationships between preferences and the two independents, however. The conclusion must be that although age and experience apparently differentiate groups with different preferences, there are still many problems in finding order to these variations.