Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The paper is concerned with human wayfinding in public buildings. Two main aspects of wayfinding difficulties are considered: architectural features of the building and cognitive processes of the agent. We conducted an empirical study in a complex multi-level building, comparing performance measures of experienced and inexperienced participants in different wayfinding tasks. Thinking aloud protocols provide insights into navigation strategies, planning phases, use of landmarks and signage, and measures of survey knowledge. Specific strategies for navigation in multi-level buildings, like the floor strategy, are identified and evaluated. An architectural analysis of the building is provided and possible causes for navigation problems are discussed. Different architectural features of the building are investigated with respect to human spatial cognition and usability issues. Finally we address potential benefits for the architectural design process and discuss options for further research.

Wayfinding in the public transportation infrastructure takes place on traffic networks. These consist of lines that are interconnected at nodes. The network is the basis for routing decisions; it is usually presented in maps and through digital interfaces. But to the traveller, the stops and stations that make up the nodes are at least as important as the network, for it is there that the complexity of the system is experienced. These observations suggest that there are two cognitively different environments involved, which we will refer to as network space and scene space. consists of the public transport network. consists of the environment at the nodes of the public transport system, through which travellers enter and leave the system and in which they change means of transport. We explore properties of the two types of spaces and how they interact to assist wayfinding. We also show how they can be modelled: for network space, graphs can be used; for scene space we propose a novel model based on cognitive schemata and partial orders.

Two experiments are presented studying interrelations between spatial properties of environments and both experience and spatial behavior. In order to systematically study such interrelations, a generic description of space is required that provides comparability between arbitrarily shaped environments and captures behaviorally relevant properties of space. In this study the suitability of isovist derived measurands for this purpose was explored. Isovist-based descriptions of 16 virtual indoor scenes were correlated with behavioral data from two experimental tasks. For both tasks, an active navigation task and a rating of experiential qualities, strong correlations between subjects’ behavior and measurands derived from isovist analysis were found. The general outcomes suggest that isovist measurands are indeed a promising means to predict the experience of space and spatial behavior for the chosen experimental tasks.

Wayfinding, i.e. getting from some origin to a destination, is one of the prime everyday problems humans encounter. It has received a lot of attention in research and many (commercial) systems propose assistance in this task. We present an approach to route directions based on the idea to adapt route directions to route and environment’s characteristics. The lack of such an adaptation is a major drawback of existing systems. Our approach is based on an information- and representation-theoretic analysis of routes and takes into account findings of behavioral research. The resulting systematics is the framework for the optimization process. We discuss the consequences of using an optimization process for generating route directions and outline its algorithmic realization.

This paper presents results from a desktop experiment in which the participants’ route selection behavior in an unknown street network is investigated. The participants were presented with a series of intersections in a virtual urban desktop environment in field view. Given the task to reach a distant wayfinding target that could be seen in the background, participants then had to state their preference for one of the two outgoing roads at each intersection. As the participants were unfamiliar with the environment they needed to apply a wayfinding strategy. This work analyzes the use of two wayfinding strategies with respect to the given wayfinding task, namely the and the . With the first strategy, the participant selects the street most in line with the target direction, whereas with the second strategy the participant prefers initially straight routes. The paper analyzes the observed preference behavior with respect to these two strategies and suggests an underlying mechanism (minimum triangle path) that explains in which situation either of the two strategies or both are applied.

There is much empirical evidence showing that factors other than the relative positions of objects in Euclidean space are important in the comprehension of a wide range of spatial prepositions in English and other languages. We first the overview the [11] which puts “what” and “where” information together to underpin the situation specific meaning of spatial terms. We then outline an implementation of this framework. The computational model for the processing of visual scenes and the identification of the appropriate spatial preposition consists of three main modules: (1) Vision Processing, (2) Elman Network, (3) Dual-Route Network. Mirroring data from experiments with human participants, we show that the model is both able to predict what will happen to objects in a scene, and use these judgements to influence the appropriateness of to describe where objects are located in the scene. Extensions of the model to other prepositions and quantifiers are discussed.

Spatial prepositions are linguistic tools to exchange information about spatial location of objects. For instance “The book is over the table” indicates that the located object (LO) is somewhere “over” the reference object (RO). Assigning direction to space (selecting a reference frame) is a necessary precursor to understanding where the LO is located. Three experiments are reported which investigated the effect of the orientation of both the LO and the RO on the acceptability of the prepositions . We found that when the LO was not vertically aligned, the appropriateness for a given spatial preposition changes. In general scenes with the LO pointing at the RO were judged less acceptable than scenes with the LO vertically oriented. These results suggest that people generate reference frames for both LO and RO prior to assigning direction to space. Modifications to Multiple Frame Activation theory [1] are discussed.

In contrast to most research on spatial reference, the scenario in our human-robot experiments focuses on identifying rather than localising objects using spatial language. The relevant question in such a task is “Which” rather than “Where”. In order to gain insights about the kind of language to expect in such a scenario, we collected participants’ linguistic choices in a web-based empirical study. Spatial scenarios were presented that varied with respect to number, shape, and location of elements, and with respect to possible perspectives. The linguistic analysis reveals that speakers adhere to underlying principles similar to those known for non-spatial object reference. If objects only differ in spatial position, a reference system and spatial axis is chosen that is suitable for contrasting the target object from competing ones. The exact spatial location is usually not specified if there are no competing objects closeby.

This paper examined spatial descriptions for guiding Japanese and American tourists from cross-cultural and geographic perspectives, based on a content analysis of 24 guidebooks to four cities in Japan and USA. Quantitative analysis of pictorial and linguistic information in guidebooks revealed that Japanese guidebooks use predominately pictorial information, whereas American guidebooks mainly depend on the linguistic one. In addition, we found a complementary relationship between the two modes of information. The contents of linguistic information were entirely influenced by socio-cultural factors rather than environmental conditions such as the street pattern regularity. In particular, difference in address systems between two countries affected the way of sorting the sites, style of maps, and the use frequency of linguistic information.

The assessment of whether a statement is consistent with what has gone before is ubiquitous in discourse comprehension. One theory of the process is that individuals search for a mental model of a situation in which all the statements in the discourse are true. In the case of spatial descriptions, individuals should prefer to construct models, which retain the information in the description. Hence, they should use strategies that retain information in an efficient way. If the descriptions are consistent with multiple models then they are likely to run into difficulties. We report some preliminary results of experiments in which the participants judged the consistency of spatial descriptions. The participants made more errors when later assertions in the description conflicted with the preferred models of earlier assertions.