  This paper discusses two main themes. First, it investigates the formation of
a spatiotemporal cognitive map (mental image) of a road network in travelers
memory, which entails the travelers global conceptual understanding of
congestion or the degree of crowding of the network. Second, it tries to
investigate how latent learning of travelers from previous experiences shapes
parts of the mental image, even for the parts of the network with which the
travelers are unfamiliar. An experiment of route choice experiences was
conducted among 90 participants in order to gain insight into the formation of
a cognitive map and latent learning. In this experiment, the following
independent variables are connected to the formation of a mental image of the
network and the quality of the generalization of the unfamiliar parts of the
network: (i) dispersion of the links travel time throughout the network, (ii)
number of trips the traveler makes, (iii) travelers gender, (iv) travelers
driving experiences, (v) travelers natural level of optimism or pessimism, (vi)
salient or noticeable features on the network, and (vii) the presence of
traffic signals. Several nonparametric (distribution-free) tests are employed
to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that apart from the travelers
gender and salient or noticeable features on the network, the considered
factors significantly affect the degree of the recognizability of the network
elements by travelers.
