Impact of Scale on the Perception of Proximity as Represented in Latvian

Spatial proximity is not just a geometric attribute but is co-determined by factors of scale (visual scope or navigational scale), object features, and specific interactional patterns between objects, to mention just a few. We conducted three experiments to test the use of natural language proximity descriptors in Latvian (words representing different proximity operators in natural language). In a repeated-measures quasi-experiment (Study 1, n=25, adults), we used a rating task to evaluate a set of functional stimuli (photographs of everyday scenes) with independent variables of (a) scale (large- and small-scale space), distance (far or close), (b) object interaction, and (c) human presence in the scene. Next, we compared the observed regularities with the results from two repeated-measures quasi-experiments with geometric stimuli (two circles in different spatial relations to each other) - production task (Study 2.1., n=105, adults) and rating task (Study 2.2., n=92, adults). The experiment with functional stimuli shows differences in the use of spatial descriptors depending on scale, distance, and other tested factors. Small-scale configurations with a larger distance between objects allow a more variable, interchangeable and less context-dependent set of descriptors. The comparison of results from experiments on geometric and functional stimuli shows similar patterns in the use of spatial descriptors depending on the distance and indicates that abstract geometric relations are represented according to small-scale context.