Counter-intuitive geographic ‘facts’: Clues for spatial reasoning at geographic scales

Abstract

‘Counter-intuitive’ geographic facts provide insight into spatial reasoning at geographic scales. Situations that are judged as counter-intuitive by many people probably result from ‘correct’ spatial reasoning based of distorted spatial knowledge that is common to populations. Systematic distortions of latitude and longitude are examined by asking subjects to judge whether certain cities were east or west (or, north or south) of a common city. When the proportion judging each city to be a certain direction is mapped, the isolines reveal systematic distortions of geographic configurations that are consistent with hierarchical knowledge representation and several prototype effects.