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Ontology and Geographic Objects: An Empirical Study of Cognitive Categorization

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Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science (COSIT 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1661))

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Abstract

Cognitive categories in the geographic realm manifest certain special features as contrasted with categories for objects at surveyable scales. We argue that these features reflect specific ontological characteristics of geographic objects. This paper presents hypotheses as to the nature of the features mentioned, reviews previous empirical work on geographic categories, and presents the results of pilot experiments that used English-speaking subjects to test our hypotheses. Our experiments show geographic categories to be similar to their non-geographic counterparts in the ways in which they generate instances of different relative frequencies at different levels. Other tests, however, provide preliminary evidence for the existence of important differences in subjects’ categorizations of geographic and non-geographic objects, and suggest further experimental work especially with regard to the role in cognitive categorization of different types of object-boundaries at different scales.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, NCGIA and Center for Cognitive Science University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14261

    David M. Mark

  2. Department of Philosophy, NCGIA and Center for Cognitive Science University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14260

    Barry Smith

  3. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Standford, CA, 94305

    Barbara Tversky

Authors
  1. David M. Mark
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  2. Barry Smith
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  3. Barbara Tversky
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Hamburg, Fachbereich Informatik, Vogt-Kölln-Straße 30, D-22527, Hamburg, Germany

    Christian Freksa

  2. Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14261, USA

    David M. Mark

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mark, D.M., Smith, B., Tversky, B. (1999). Ontology and Geographic Objects: An Empirical Study of Cognitive Categorization. In: Freksa, C., Mark, D.M. (eds) Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science. COSIT 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1661. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48384-5_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-48384-5_19

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