Prabhakar, Grison, Lhuillier, Leprévost, Gyselinck and Morgagni – TRANSPORT MAKES CITIES 2024

Description

The paper documents a “schema effect” whereby schematic transit maps reshape residents’ metric mental representations of metropolitan space. Two experiments—one with Greater Paris residents placing landmarks on a blank page, and a larger online study (N=1,103) covering Paris, London and Berlin with an added learning phase—used bidimensional regression and mixed-effects models to compare sketches to geographic and transit-map layouts. Participants’ configurations more closely matched schematic transit maps than geographic maps, though the effect varied by city and weakened when strong topographic cues (e.g., rivers) were present. Sketches were often compressed relative to reference maps; London showed notable compression and rotational biases were idiosyncratic. In the learning task, memory representations mirrored the format presented (schematic or geographic), showing a congruency effect. Authors argue the schema effect arises from cultural familiarity with schematic maps rather than universal regularization, with implications for urban cognition, transit map design, and long-term route choices.