Zastosowanie mapy mentalnej do badania percepcji. Studium porównawcze na przykładzie studentów polskich i słowackich

Abstract

The comparative study presents certain features of perception of Poland and Slovakia by Polish (53 informants in the University of Lodz branch in Tomaszow Mazowiecki) and Slovak students (87 informants in the University of Presov). The aims of the research were the following: – a comparison of knowledge of Polish and Slovak students regarding tourist centres and regions in a neighbouring country, – a subjective assessment of a neighbouring country as a tourist desti-nation, – creating a mental map – each student drew maps of their home country and the neighbouring country. The applied research methods follow the basic models developed by K. Lynch. Over 390 features of the maps and the drawn symbols were taken into consideration in the course of a complex analysis of the mental maps. The analysis of a conducted survey and of 174 mental maps of Poland and Slovakia drawn by informants presented a lot of distortions and mistakes concerning the notion of tourist regions. The following regularities in spatial location were observed: 1. All the groups distorted both the borders of their home country and of their neighbouring country. 2. The knowledge of a home country was definitely more comprehensive than that of the neighbouring country. Polish students marked 40–50 towns on the map of Poland on average whereas only 10–15 on the map of Slovakia. Polish students located 6–10 tourist centres on average on the map of their home country and only 1–5 on the map of the neighbouring country. Slovak students marked 11–15 towns and 1–5 tourist centres on the map of Poland (see picture 15 and 16). The Poles, apart from the Tatras, drew also the Low Tatras. The Slovaks tried to place in Poland the Tatras, the Pieniny Mountains, the Swietokrzyskie Mountains and the Bieszczady Mountains. 3. The correct location of objects on a map caused a lot of problems. The most famous Slovak mountains, the Tatras, were placed correctly only by three Polish students. The other locations were incorrect (see picture 14). Bratislava, the capital, was also incorrectly placed. 18 students placed it in the middle of Slovakia and two in the east. 4. Completely false information was put on the mental maps as well. For example, one of Polish students marked Tatralandia ( thermal baths, waterpark) as a hill. Another one marked the Carpathians as a Slovak hill. Furthermore, the results of the survey make it possible to identify the differences between the groups of Polish and Slovak students: 1. From among Polish students as many as 97% visited Slovakia whereas only 56% Slovak students visited Poland. 2. A lot of students visited the neighbouring country for reasons other than the tourist ones. The Poles searched for entertainment and travelled across Slovakia to the south of Europe while the Slovaks arrived to do shopping, visit relatives or on business. 3. Most of the respondents attributed greater value to tourist resources in Slovakia than to those in Poland (both in the case of Polish and Slovak students). In conclusion, the authors notice that although mental maps are of a very individual character, they are also a part of intellectual capital of a society, which is important while developing a tourism product. According to L. Edvinsson and M.S. Malone (2001), intellectual capital is knowledge, experience, organizational technology and a professional skill which gives a competitive advantage on the market to the owner of this capital.