The mental representation of countries

Abstract

Three studies were conducted to describe adults’ knowledge of the countries of the world. Undergraduates from a selective liberal arts college recognised nearly two-thirds of nations, and about one-third were produced in a free-recall task. The use of information related to countries’ locations was an important determinant of order of recall. Contiguity in free-recall output, responses in a free-association task, and the prediction of recall from recognition also provided evidence of other relations between countries, including semantic and phonetic links and membership in groups of countries. The number of times a country was mentioned in the news was a consistent predictor of recognition and recall. The relative prosperity, population density, and geographic area of countries also influenced recall.

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publication Date

10-1-2006

Publication Title

Memory

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658210600782925

Keywords

Geographical perception, Mental representation, Humanistic education, Adult education--Evaluation, Research, Television in geography education, Population density

Language

English

Format

text

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