Abstract
We examined some potential causes of bias in geographic location estimates by comparing location estimates of North American cities made by Canadian, U.S., and Mexican university students. All three groups placed most Mexican cities near the equator, which implies that all e influenced by shared beliefs about the locationthree groups wers of geographical regions relative to global reference points. However, the groups divided North America into different regions and differed in the relative accuracy of the estimates within them, which implies that there was an influence of culture-specific knowledge. The data support a category-based system of plausible reasoning, in which biases in judgments are multiply determined, and underscore the utility of the estimation paradigm as a tool in cross-cultural cognitive research.
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This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by Grants DUE-9551939 and 9906418 from the U.S. National Science Foundation.
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Friedman, A., Kerkman, D.D., Brown, N.R. et al. Cross-cultural similarities and differences in North Americans’ geographic location judgments. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12, 1054–1060 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206443
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03206443