Categorical and coordinate spatial information: Can they be disentangled in country sketch maps?

Background: When individuals have prolonged experience with anenvironment, they attempt to build a relatively accurate spatial rep-resentation. They use this to make spatial judgments and describespatial relations between objects and between objects and the observer. They can either use metric coordinate properties (‘‘A is nearto/far from B’’) or use a more abstract way, making reference to thecategorical position of the objects (e.g. ‘‘A is right/left of B’’).Aims: The present study is a first attempt to employ the categori-cal/coordinate paradigm in the sketching of country maps, in order tosee whether it is possible to disentangle these two different sources ofmental representations. Starting with a series of very simple sketchesof country maps, we try to measure separately the two kinds ofinformation. Moreover, the study also investigates the role of familiarity on sketch map performance. Results: The results will be discussed in the light of literature about categorical and coordinate spatial relations. Participants can representgeographical information with different degrees of accuracy according the two encoding systems. We will also examine whetherfamiliarity has special effects on the two spatial coding mechanisms.Conclusion: This study will add further insights into the encoding ofspatial relations and extend findings on categorical/coordinate systems to sketch maps

Cognitive Processing (2018) 19 (Suppl 1):S45