MENTAL DISTANCES AND DIRECTIONS TO PLACES IN CHILDREN'S LIVING ENVIRONMENTS : A study on the mental scenery of children Part 2

Based on the questionnaire survey reported in the previous paper, this paper describes the analysis of mental distances and directions from children's houses to places they like and do not like and their relationship with the types of the places and area characteristics to elucidate the characteristics of how children locate features in their mental scenery. The following results were obtained: 1) The actual distances to places they cite are generally within 700m, though the mental distance varied depending on the type of place and the area characteristics, such as the number of feature facilities in the area. 2) The mental direction to a place is affected by the location of the child's school with respect to his/her house. Children tended to name places they frequently visit. 3) The relationship between the mental distances and the mental directions revealed that children cite places in various directions near their houses, whereas the places they cite tend to be in the direction of their schools as the distance from their houses increases.