Cognitive mapping of major world regions among czech geography students

Abstract

World regions are essential categories through which our knowledge about the world is organized and spatially anchored. To a large extent, these regions are mental constructs created by considering selected features and by disregarding others. In this study we examine the world regional divisions in the minds of 107 Czech geography students at the Charles University in Prague which is additionally compared with the world regional division determined by the review of geographic literature (available in the Czech Republic) dealing with global scale issues. The results are shown in two maps. Map 1 (1:200,000,000) was created by georeferencing and superimposing respondents' sketch map drawings and Map 2 then using the method of borderline-strength analysis.