Wayfinding Theory and Research: The Need for a New Approach

Wayfinding is the ability to learn a route through the environment This paper considers the theories (Piaget, Inhelder and Szeminska, 1960; Siegel and White, 1975) which have been put forward to explain the development of wayfinding and which have provided a framework for much of the related empirical research. It is argued that the evidence does not clearly support those theories, and it is suggested that recent research in other areas of cognitive development can offer alternative approaches to the consideration of how wayfinding abilities develop.