Am I Crossing a Border? Spatial Regionalization and Route Choice Depends on Perceived Landmark Categorization

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigated the role of semantic similarities of place names in forming larger regions. The environment´s place names allowed two alternative semantic categorizations corresponding to two equally valid regionalizations. In a priming phase, participants were biased to one or the other categorization scheme. Region perception was assessed by having participants choose between two equidistant routes crossing different numbers of region boundaries. Participants selected routes with a lower number of region crossings according to the primed categorization in 61% of all cases. The results show that perceived semantic similarity of place names affects route choice and the formation of spatial regions.