Granularity in Reference to Spatio-Temporal Location and Relations

This paper discusses the role of granularity in judgments about spatio-temporal location and relations. It distinguishes three aspects of spatio-temporal granularity: the granularity with which location is approximated, the granularity which arises as a function of the degree to which we recognize or trace over changes of location, and granularity as it affects our apprehension of spatio-temporal relations. The paper shows that there is a hierarchical structure of spatio-temporal granularity that is closely related the hierarchical structure of of places in our environment and to the hierarchical structure of temporal orders such as embodied in calendars and agendas.