2.4 Habitat preferences and environmental cognition

Where to live, where to find water, how to navigate home — these spatial problems shaped both our preferences for landscapes and the cognitive machinery we use to move through the world.

The savanna hypothesis

Gordon Orians proposed that humans carry an evolved preference for habitats resembling the African savanna where our genus arose: open grassland dotted with trees, the presence of water, and varied terrain offering both resources and refuge. Across cultures, people asked to rate landscapes tend to prefer savanna-like scenes — and this preference is strongest in young children, before culture has much chance to shape taste.

Prospect and refuge

Jay Appleton's prospect-refuge theory holds that we are drawn to places that offer both prospect (a clear view to detect resources and threats) and refuge (a place to hide and be safe). The appeal of a hilltop house with a view, or a restaurant table with your back to the wall facing the door, reflects this ancient calculus: see without being seen.

Sex differences in spatial cognition

On average, men and women show different spatial strengths that may track a division of foraging labor. Men tend to perform better on mental-rotation and route-distance tasks (consistent with hunting and long-range travel), while women tend to excel at object-location memory (consistent with gathering, which rewards remembering where food plants are). These are average differences with large overlap, not categorical divides.

A grounding example

In a now-classic study, Irwin Silverman and Marion Eals tested object-location memory by briefly showing people a cluttered array of objects and later asking which had moved. Women outperformed men at remembering the spatial layout of objects — precisely the skill an effective gatherer needs to relocate productive plants season after season. The result links a measurable cognitive sex difference to a specific ancestral foraging problem.