Seeing the Forest or the Trees? Shifting Categorical Effects in Map Memory

People use spatial and nonspatial information to structure memory for an environment. Two experiments explored interactions between spatial and social categories on map memory when mediated by retrieval (Experiment 1) and encoding (Experiment 2) demands. Participants studied a map depicting business locations (including proprietors' race). In Experiment 1, participants completed two memory tasks, one globally focused and the other locally focused. The global task compressed, while the local task expanded, within-category similarity. Furthermore, processing styles carried over to the subsequent task. Experiment 2 emphasized either the spatial or social category during encoding, which increased that category's weighting in memory. These results extend the work of Maddox, Rapp, Brion, and Taylor, suggesting that retrieval and encoding demands can shift how these categories affect spatial memory.     

Children's control of reference systems in spatial tasks: Foundations of spatial cognitive skill?

Two experiments are presented, one that focused on the abilities of 3- through 8-year-old children to use frames of reference as means for solving a search task in a small-scale perceived space and one that focused on the abilities of 8- through 11-year-old children to use different frames of reference to answer questions about the locations of objects in an environment they had read about. Experiment 1 revealed developmental improvement in the consistent application of object-, place-, and viewer-based frames of reference, with scale of space impacting the pattern of age-related improvement. Experiment 2 showed that young readers' first successes with switching from one reference system to another in representational space involved a vantage point perspective, a viewer-based ``gaze tour' of a small-scale area. Although disparate in focus and method, the studies point to the need for a new theoretical framework for examining developmental issues in the application of spatial frames of reference.     

Reasoning about Depth and Motion from an Observer's Viewpoint

ABSTRACT

The goal of this paper is to present a logic-based formalism for representing knowledge about objects in space and their movements, and show how this knowledge could be built up from the viewpoint of an observer immersed in a dynamic world. In this paper space is represented using functions that extract attributes of depth, size and distance from snapshots of the world. These attributes compose a novel spatial reasoning system named Depth Profile Calculus (DPC). Transitions between qualitative relations involving these attributes are represented by an extension of this calculus called Dynamic Depth Profile Calculus (DDPC). We argue that knowledge about objects in the world could be built up via a process of abduction on DDPC relations.     

The effects of maps and textual information on navigation in a desktop virtual environment

This study presents an experimentthat investigates how individuals perform anavigation test in a desktop virtualenvironment. The participants were randomlyassigned to one of the five test conditions:(C1) a map as information material during theentire test, (C2) the map only visible beforethe test, (C3) textual information during theentire test, (C4) textual information onlybefore the test and (C5) no additionalnavigational cues. The results were thatadditional information during the entire testwas more effective than short periods ofstudying the map or textual information onlybefore the test. However, participants weremore accurate in finding their route when anykind of navigational cues were used than whenno navigational cues were used. The results ofan additional questionnaire indicate thatbetween the test groups there were nodifferences in estimating the travelleddistances. The performance to draw the coveredpath into a sketch map of the landscape did notdiffer significantly between the test groupswith additional navigational cues. Theseresults indicate that in certain environmentstextual information may provide an effectivealternative to navigation training with a map.     

Is Memory for Routes Enhanced by an Environment's Richness in Visual Landmarks?

We tested the hypothesis that a route's memorability is dependent on the frequency with which people are exposed to visual landmarks. Undergraduates learned either a route through an urban area lacking visually salient features, or a route in a neighborhood with many shops and urban objects. They were then asked to recall the learned route in the form of route directions and sketch maps. The results showed higher recall performance for the richer environment. When presented with photographs depicting scenes along the route, participants exposed to the richer environment had higher recognition scores and shorter response times than the others. The data confirm the functional role of landmarks in route memory and wayfinding.     

Is Route Learning More Than Serial Learning?

Abstract

The nature of route learning in terms of the memorizing of landmarks was investigated. In Experiment 1, participants memorized landmarks while being guided through a computer-simulated hallway (dynamic, with spatial context), or while viewing the landmarks one by one in front of a black background (static, without context). Two more conditions completed the 2 × 2 design. One condition preserved the dynamic landmark viewing properties (observers approached each object, passed it, turned to the next object, and so on), but the background was black (dynamic, without context). In the other condition the observer saw a stationary display of each object within a hallway, but did not approach the object (static, with context). Serial recall was much better after viewing the landmarks in the dynamic presentation format with spatial context than in the other conditions. Experiment 2 showed that the superior performance in the dynamic condition with context was abolished when all hallway segments were equally long. This implies that metric information is a component of route knowledge at a very early stage, which is incompatible with the dominant framework, but is compatible with the alternative framework for spatial microgenesis.     

The cognitive adequacy of Allen's interval calculus for qualitative spatial representation and reasoning

Qualitative spatial reasoning (QSR) is often claimed to be cognitively more plausible than conventional numerical approaches to spatial reasoning, because it copes with the indeterminacy of spatial data and allows inferences based on incomplete spatial knowledge. The paper reports experimental results concerning the cognitive adequacy of an important approach used in QSR, namely the spatial interpretation of the interval calculus introduced by Allen (1983). Knauff, Rauh and Schlieder (1995) distinguished between the conceptual and inferential cognitive adequacy of Allen's interval calculus. The former refers to the thirteen base relations as a representational system and the latter to the compositions of these relations as a tool for reasoning. The results of two memory experiments on conceptual adequacy show that people use ordinal information similar to the interval relations when representing and remembering spatial arrangements. Furthermore, symmetry transformations on the interval relations were found to be responsible for most of the errors, whereas conceptualneighborhood theory did not appear to correspond to cognitively relevant concepts. Inferential adequacy was investigated by two reasoning experiments and the results show that in inference tasks where the number of possible interval relations for the composition is more than one, subjects ignore numerous possibilities and interindividually prefer the same relations. Reorientations and transpositions operating on the relations seem to be important for reasoning performance as well, whereas conceptual neighborhood did not appear to affect the difficulty of reasoning tasks based on the interval relations.     

On early cognitive mapping

In this paper we examine the nature of theearly cognitive map – the beginnings of acognitive map formed from one's earlyimpressions of the environment one is in. Twodistinct paradigms have emerged from ourstudies of what information is initially identified in a cognitive map. The first, which weterm a space-based approach, emphasises makingexplicit the spatial extent of the currentlocal environment. The second emphasises makingexplicit the relationships between objects inthe local environment and we call this anobject-based approach. For both paradigms weexamine the psychological literature to findsupport for the approach and the roboticists'attempts at implementing the idea. We arguethat a space-based approach is the moreappropriate way to compute an early cognitivemap. In particular, we find that Siegel andWhite's (1975) object-based hypothesis, whichstates that the developmental progression of acognitive map is from landmark to route tosurvey map, is not supported. The space-basedparadigm underpins our own work in this areaand we outline our own space-based theory forcomputing an early cognitive map.     

Learning Routes from Visualizations for Indoor Wayfinding: Presentation Modes and Individual Differences

Abstract

Participants (N = 78) studied a visualization of a route through a complex building and walked that route in the real building without further assistance. Erroneous turns on the route as well as indicators of uncertainty such as hesitations were assessed. Three types of route visualizations were compared: (1) an allocentric, map-based visualization with the route indicated in floor maps, (2) an ordered sequence of pictures of decision points shown from the egocentric perspective, and (3) an animation showing a virtual walk of the route from the egocentric perspective. In addition to the experimental variation, gender differences, differences in visual-spatial abilities and differences in self-reported wayfinding strategies were considered as predictor variables. Wayfinding performance did not differ between allocentric (map) and egocentric (decision point pictures and animation) visualizations. However, wayfinding performance was better with animated than with static egocentric visualizations. Individual differences in the ability to encode visual-spatial information from the visualization played a critical role for route learning. Self-reported sense of direction related to egocentric wayfinding strategies also predicted wayfinding performance. Gender differences were attributable to differences in visual-spatial abilities and egocentric wayfinding strategies. Interactions between visualizations and individual differences were not found. It is concluded that animations of virtual walks are suitable to convey route information in complex buildings. Successful acquisition of route knowledge from maps is possible but might depend on the comprehensibility of the structure of the building.