Cognitive & Behavioral Geography Banner

Overview

Cognitive and behavioral geography is the study of human mind and activity concerning, space, place, and environment, including their symbolic representation as information in words, images, and other formats. This approach relates to many subfields of human geography, cartography, and geographic information science (GIScience). It is also fundamentally multi-and interdisciplinary, connecting primarily to various subfields of research psychology and information science, but also to economics, transportation, linguistics, anthropology, artificial intelligence, architecture and planning, neuroscience, and more. Cognitive and behavioral geography (1) models human thought and activity based on psychologically plausible assumptions; (2) highlights the role of people’s mental models of reality as a basis for their geographic activity; (3) applies disaggregate approaches that treat individuals and groups as potentially distinct and heterogeneous; and (4) conceptualizes humans as active responders to culture, social institutions, economic forces, and the physical environment.

 Affiliated Faculty

Dynamic microsimulation, travel behavior analysis, activity-based travel demand forecasting, behavioral dynamics, human survey design, smart green cities.
Affiliated Faculty
Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Distinguished Professor
Professor Montello’s research is in the areas of spatial, environmental, and geographic perception, cognition, affect, and behavior.
Associate Professor
I am a political scientist with research in political geography, local politics, and the politics of housing and transportation. My latest work examines how people understand the economic effects of housing construction in their neighborhoods and metropolitan areas.