Becoming familiar is clearly related to getting to know the city, town, village we live in. One of the many fascinating facets of my research is that it relates to an everyday phenomenon.
Since I came to Santa Barbara in late February, I have constantly experienced how I became continuously more familiar. I also experienced the well-known fact that schemata we grow up with have an impact on things we recognize. Clearly, being able to recognize a building, a statue – you name it – we have seen before, is critically important in becoming familiar. When I came to Santa Barbara, I had difficulties to actually recognize the city center for quite some time. The reason was that I grew up in Europe close to a city of Roman decent. The picture of what downtown looks like was shaped by that. So the schema in my head did not match the layout nor the visual impression of downtown Santa Barbara! With the increased familiarity I now have, I’m feeling confident about recognizing when I am downtown.
Interestingly, a paper which was co-authored by my mentor at UCSB, Professor Montello, actually points to the fact that not all people might agree with my impression…