When the City Speaks: How Urban Form Shapes the Cultural Transmission of Spatial Conceptualization

How do urban environments shape the way people conceptualize and communicate space? Using a cultural transmission experiment in virtual reality, we asked participants to navigate one of two contrasting cityscapes-a regular, grid-like "Manhattan" or an irregular, landmark-rich "Barcelona"-and to produce route descriptions and sketch maps. We examined participants' spatial conceptualizations and tracked how spatial communication was transmitted across six simulated generations. Results show that city layout shaped spatial language and map production. Participants used more horizontal (e.g., numbered routes and intersections) descriptors in the "Manhattan" environment and more vertical (e.g., buildings distinguished by colors and textures) descriptors in the "Barcelona" environment. These strategies were also more effective: participants completed navigation tasks faster when the descriptions they received matched the structure of the environment. We observed robust cultural transmission of spatial conventions, with participants' productions predicted by the linguistic input they received. However, rather than showing cumulative elaboration over time, these conventions stabilized quickly. Individual-level analyses revealed consistency between language and maps, as well as across environments: participants formed coherent spatial models that persisted and shaped adaptation to a new cityscape. This suggests that individual cognitive stability may act as a mechanism for preserving, rather than progressively refining, cultural conventions. Together, these findings highlight urban environments as cognitive-cultural niches that shape how people perceive, conceptualize, and communicate space. We discuss implications for theories of spatial language, cultural evolution, and urban design, showing how city layout shapes not only navigation behavior, but also the structure of spatial thought.