Cognition and Shopping Choice: A Multidimensional Scaling Approach

Interest in cognitive approaches has led to a need for means of ascertaining individual perceptions with a view to relating these to spatial behaviour. Yet such methods as the repertory grid, although invaluable for investigating individuals, make comparisons across a wider group difficult. The multidimensional scaling program PREFMAP possesses this facility through its assumption of a group cognitive space whose dimensions, while common to all, have different saliences for different individuals. This study tests the feasibility of using PREFMAP to study perceived attributes of shopping centres. A broad, though not exact, commonality of dimensions appears to exist. Values of subjects' saliences on PREFMAP dimensions are further shown to be related to variations in shopping behaviour, but until multidimensional scaling can be related to a theory of cognition it will not realise its potential for behavioural studies.

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