Prabhakar, Grison, Lhuillier and Morgagn – L’EFFET «SCHÉMA» 2022

Description

This study questions the “schema effect”: do transport patterns influence the cognitive representations of the metropolises? After a review of the work showing that schematic plans simplify and distort topography, the authors tested 1,103 regular transport users in Paris, London and Berlin. The participants placed 10 markers on a screen in three media (white, schematic, geographic); a learning phase on a foreign city used either a schematic or a geographical map. Two-dimensional and mixed-model regressions show that, overall, the positions of the inhabitants correspond more to transport patterns (Mschema=0.596) than to geographical maps (Mgeo=0.575), a significant effect (p<.001) but decreasing if the test medium is geographical. On the other hand, during directed learning, the effect disappears: the representation follows the learned format (strong learning-reference congruence). The authors conclude that the schema effect results from familiarity and use of schemas rather than from geographical features or general cognitive biases. [Original in French]