Acquisition Of Survey Knowledge Research Articles

Route schematization with landmarks

Predominant navigation applications make use of a turn-by-turn instructions approach and are mostly supported by small screen devices. This combination does little to improve users' orientation or spatial knowledge acquisition. Considering this limitation, we propose a route schematization method aimed for small screen devices to facilitate the readability of route information and survey knowledge acquisition. Current schematization methods focus on the route path and ignore context information, specially polygonal landmarks (such as lakes, parks, and regions), which is crucial for promoting orientation. Our schematization method, in addition to the route path, takes as input: adjacent streets, point-like landmarks, and polygonal landmarks. Moreover, our schematic route map layout highlights spatial relations between route and context information, improves the readability of turns at decision points, and the visibility of survey information on small screen devices. The schematization algorithm combines geometric transformations and integer linear programming to produce the maps. The contribution of this paper is a method that produces schematic route maps with context information to support the user in wayfinding and orientation.

North in the head: spatial reference frame and map orientation

North in the head: spatial reference frame and map orientation

The Acquisition of Survey Knowledge by Individuals With Down Syndrome.

People with Down syndrome often exhibit deficiencies in wayfinding activities, particularly route learning (e.g., Courbois et al., 2013; Davis et al., 2014; Farran et al., 2015). Evidence concerning more sophisticated survey learning has been sparse. In the research reported here, two experiments are reported that evaluated survey learning of youth with DS and typically developing children (TD) matched on mental age. In Experiment 1, participants learned two overlapping routes consisting of three turns each through a virtual environment depicting 9 square city blocks. Following acquisition, they were tested on multiple measures of survey knowledge: finding a shortcut, identifying the direction of landmarks not currently visible from their location in the environment, and recognizing a bird’s-eye representation of the overall environment. Under these conditions, which should provide relatively optimal opportunities for survey learning, the participants with DS performed comparably to TD participants matched on non-verbal ability on all of our measures of survey learning. Hence, we concluded that people with DS can acquire some survey knowledge when tasked with learning a small environment and given the opportunity to do so. In Experiment 2, the experimenter navigated participants through a large, relatively complex, virtual environment along a circuitous path, beginning and ending at a target landmark. Then, the participants were placed at a pre-specified location in the environment that they had viewed previously and instructed to navigate to the same target (a door) using the shortest possible path from their current location. They completed the task three times: once after being shown the environment one time, once after three exposures, and once after five exposures. Results indicated that the participants with DS exhibited significantly less skill at identifying the shortcut than did the TD participants, with differences emerging as the number of exposures increased. Participants with DS were also less able to recall landmarks at the end of the experiment. Overall, however, the performance of both groups was relatively poor in both experiments – with the performance of participants with DS being worse as conditions became less optimal. These results were discussed in terms of underlying mechanisms that may account for variations in survey learning as environmental complexity increases.

An algorithm for the selection of route dependent orientation information

Landmarks are important features of spatial cognition and are naturally included in human route descriptions. In the past algorithms were developed to select the most salient landmarks at decision points and automatically incorporate them in route instructions. Moreover, it was shown that human route descriptions contain a significant amount of orientation information, which support the users to orient themselves regarding known environmental information, and it was shown that orientation information support the acquisition of survey knowledge. Thus, there is a need to extend the landmarks selection to automatically select orientation information. In this work, we present an algorithm for the computational selection of route dependent orientation information, which extends previous algorithms and includes a salience calculation of orientation information for any location along the route. We implemented the algorithm and demonstrate the functionality based on OpenStreetMap data.

The effect of orientation instructions on the recall and reuse of route and survey elements in wayfinding descriptions

Turn-by-turn instructions of navigation systems do not fully correspond to the way in which people typically communicate spatial information to each other. Previous research demonstrated that the acquisition of survey knowledge from such instructions is challenging. In the present study we investigate whether it is possible to create wayfinding instructions that communicate survey information, without sacrificing the recall of route information. We explore whether the presentation of survey information can be easily mentally integrated with route information. To this end, we compared three different types of wayfinding instructions: turn-by-turn instructions, which include streets and metric distances; spatial chunking instructions which include local route information such as landmarks located at decision points and present instructions in cognitively logical chunks; and our orientation instructions, which combine local and global information of the route and integrate it within the environment's context. Instructions were presented in verbal and visual modes. Results showed that it is possible to improve the recall of survey information without sacrificing the recall of route-specific elements: visual orientation instructions resulted in significantly higher landmark recall rates, significantly higher quality sketch maps, and significantly more “survey-like” sketch map types. In the verbal mode, differences between orientation instructions and spatial chunking instructions were less clear, but the performance of both was better, compared to turn-by-turn instructions. These results contribute to the ongoing discussion on the potential reasons for the navigation systems' detrimental effect on spatial learning and demonstrate that people can learn both types of knowledge if the presentation style supports it. The overall amount of acquired knowledge could be improved through orientation instructions. Our study has practical implications for the future design of navigation systems.

The advantage of globally visible landmarks for spatial learning

Despite much recent interest, it is unclear which types of landmarks are best suited for survey knowledge acquisition. Thus, we investigated the accuracy of survey knowledge after the learning of sequentially visible (local) landmarks and simultaneously visible (global) landmarks from a first-person perspective during navigation through a virtual city. We also assessed systematically the role of working memory during navigation with a concurrent spatial-sequential task. Our results indicate that the learning of local and global landmark configurations are similarly affected by this concurrent task. We also find greater accuracy for the acquisition of global landmark knowledge compared to local landmark knowledge, especially for participants with high working memory capacity.

Spatial Learning with Orientation Maps: The Influence of Different Environmental Features on Spatial Knowledge Acquisition

The prevalent use of GPS-based navigation systems impairs peoples’ ability to orient themselves. This paper investigates whether wayfinding maps that accentuate different types of environmental features support peoples’ spatial learning. A virtual-reality driving simulator was used to investigate spatial knowledge acquisition in assisted wayfinding tasks. Two main conditions of wayfinding maps were tested against a base condition: (i) highlighting local features, i.e., landmarks, along the route and at decision points; and (ii) highlighting structural features that provide global orientation. The results show that accentuating local features supports peoples’ acquisition of route knowledge, whereas accentuating global features supports peoples’ acquisition of survey knowledge. The results contribute to the general understanding of spatial knowledge acquisition in assisted wayfinding tasks. Future navigation systems could enhance spatial knowledge by providing visual navigation support incorporating not only landmarks but structural features in wayfinding maps.

The acquisition of survey knowledge for local and global landmark configurations under time pressure

ABSTRACTThe influence of stress states on cognition is widely recognized. However, the manner in which stress affects survey knowledge acquisition is still unresolved. For the present study, we investigated whether survey knowledge acquisition during a stressful task (i.e., under time pressure) is more accurate for the mental representation of global or local landmarks. Participants navigated through virtual cities with a navigation aid and explicit learning instructions for different landmark configurations. Participants’ judgments of relative direction (JRDs) suggest that global landmark configurations were not represented more accurately than local landmark configurations and that survey knowledge acquisition was not impaired under time pressure. In contrast to prior findings, our results indicate the limitations of the utility of global landmarks for spatial knowledge acquisition.

Wayfinding Through Orientation

ABSTRACTDominant approaches in computer-assisted wayfinding support adhere to the deeply problematic principles of turn-by-turn navigation. In this article, we suggest a new approach called “Wayfinding Through Orientation,” which supports the acquisition of spatial knowledge and cognitive mapping for advancing the user’s spatial orientation. Being oriented on one’s way is a prerequisite to enabling people to verify instructions and to incorporate new spatial information into their existing knowledge structure. In three studies described in this article we first present empirical evidence that people can be supported in survey knowledge acquisition through suitable wayfinding instructions. Consequently, we explore orientation information in human wayfinding instructions. Finally, we outline how orientation information can be communicated within a prototypically implemented navigation assistance system.

What working memory subcomponents are needed in the acquisition of survey knowledge? Evidence from direction estimation and shortcut tasks

This study investigated whether and to what extent verbal and spatial working memory (WM) are implicated in the acquisition of survey knowledge through navigation in a real environment. We adopted a dual-task paradigm, asking participants to learn the layout of two floors of an unfamiliar building by navigation, and to perform either a verbal or a spatial concurrent task. Ninety undergraduates were assigned to one of three groups according to concurrent task condition: articulatory suppression, spatial tapping, or control (no concurrent task). Acquisition of a survey representation was tested by asking participants to perform direction estimations and shortcut tasks. The results showed that the spatial secondary task interfered most strongly with encoding survey knowledge.

Active and passive spatial learning in human navigation: Acquisition of survey knowledge.

It seems intuitively obvious that active exploration of a new environment would lead to better spatial learning than would passive visual exposure. It is unclear, however, which components of active learning contribute to spatial knowledge, and previous literature is decidedly mixed. This experiment tests the contributions of 4 components to metric survey knowledge: visual, vestibular, and podokinetic information and cognitive decision making. In the learning phase, 6 groups of participants learned the locations of 8 objects in a virtual hedge maze by (a) walking, (b) being pushed in a wheelchair, or (c) watching a video, crossed with (1) making decisions about their path or (2) being guided through the maze. In the test phase, survey knowledge was assessed by having participants walk a novel shortcut from a starting object to the remembered location of a test object, with the maze removed. Performance was slightly better than chance in the passive video condition. The addition of vestibular information did not improve performance in the wheelchair condition, but the addition of podokinetic information significantly improved angular accuracy in the walking condition. In contrast, there was no effect of decision making in any condition. The results indicate that visual and podokinetic information significantly contribute to survey knowledge, whereas vestibular information and decision making do not. We conclude that podokinetic information is the primary component of active learning for the acquisition of metric survey knowledge.

Integrating Route and Survey Learning in Complex Virtual Environments: Using a 3D Map

This study aimed to explore how a three-dimensional (3D) map affects the acquisition of survey knowledge in complex virtual environments (VEs). Subject navigated in virtual and real subway stations, where the virtual station was augmented with either a 3D floor map, a 3D building map, or neither. After subject's navigation in the station, they made the judgment of spatial relative directions between objects. The analyses of response time showed that participants responded faster when they were assisted by the 3D floor or building map than without a map aid in virtual stations. There was no significant difference between survey knowledge acquired in the virtual station augmented with the 3D floor or building map and in the real station. Participants with the 3D floor map performed best in spatial judgments. Implications of these findings to a 3D map design were discussed.

Spatial Representation of a Virtual Room Space: Perspective and Vertical Movement

Evidence from prior research has demonstrated that exocentric views of the environment can facilitate the acquisition of survey knowledge in a virtual environment. The present study examined the effect of different exocentric views on judging the relative direction of objects. During the participants' vertical movement in a virtual room, participants learned the spatial layout in one of three conditions: two-perspective, attentive-elevation, and normal-elevation conditions, where the number of the exocentric perspectives from which the spatial layout was observed was different. After spatial learning, they made the judgment of the relative direction of objects. The analysis of spatial judgment showed that as the number of exocentric perspectives increased, the accuracy improved in the mental representation of spatial vertical information and spatial information in novel directions. Results indicated that the increased number of exocentric perspectives during the vertical movement facilitated the flexible acquisition of survey knowledge. Applications of this study included the design of effective navigation aids in virtual multilevel buildings.

Spatial learning in a virtual multilevel building: Evaluating three exocentric view aids

The present study explores how the design of the exocentric view aid affects the acquisition of survey knowledge in virtual environments. The exocentric view was provided by either a 3D floor map, a 3D building map or the elevation of viewpoint in air. Participants navigated a virtual multilevel building and their survey knowledge was measured by the judgment of spatial relative direction. The results showed that (1) the accuracy of spatial judgment along the horizontal direction and response time were improved for participants with the exocentric view aid; (2) the accuracy of spatial judgment along the vertical direction was worst in the condition with a 3D floor map; (3) in general participants with a 3D building map performed best. The data suggested that the large scale of an exocentric view aid and the increased number of exocentric perspective through which the spatial layout is observed can facilitate the acquisition of survey knowledge in a virtual building. Potential applications of the findings include the design of a 3D map for navigation in both real and virtual buildings.

Wayfinding Performance in and the Spatial Knowledge of a Color-coded Building for Adults and Children

The study reported here investigates the effect color has on the performance in a wayfinding task,the wayfinding strategies used and the acquisition of survey knowledge of a total of sixty participants: twenty second graders,sixth graders, and adults each. All participants had to find their way to a goal in a virtual environment with either a colored or a gray ground. After that,they had to find the shortest way from the start position to the goal in two consecutive trials,to draw a sketch map of the maze,and to mark the position of the goal figure in an overview of the maze. The results showed that color helped all participants to improve their performance in the wayfinding task, influenced the use of some wayfinding strategies but did not improve the acquisition of survey knowledge. Furthermore, there was a developmental achievement from second graders to adults. The results implicate firstly that children and adults similarly rely on the structuring of space through color when navigating through an unfamiliar large-scale environment,and secondly that there is a dissociation between wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge.

Goal Specificity and the Acquisition of Survey Knowledge

Studies of route and survey knowledge have been inconclusive regarding whether survey knowledge is an inevitable outgrowth of extensive route knowledge. The current study examines one factor affecting the development of survey knowledge from route knowledge: goal specificity. Goal specificity refers to the extent to which an explicit goal exists to which problem-solving activities are directed. Past studies have shown that goal specificity inhibits the development of schematic representations. Using computer-simulated navigation about a novel campus environment, goal specificity was found to interfere with the acquisition of survey knowledge. Practically speaking, this implies that when getting to a goal is of primary concern, the development of survey knowledge may be inhibited even after extensive direct experience.

Spatial representations acquired from computer models: Cognitive load, orientation specificity and the acquisition of survey knowledge

Past research has shown that spatial knowledge acquired from maps is orientation specific while that acquired from direct experience is not. Research using computer model exposure to an environment has sometimes succeeded in eliminating orientation specificity but usually at a cost of generally poor spatial judgment performance on the part of participants. Typically, orientation specificity has been assessed using simulated orientation tests where participants must imagine their locations and facing directions. The current research reduces cognitive load by not using a simulated test of orientation and in doing so succeeds in eliminating orientation specificity while maintaining generally accurate performance after computer model exposure. In tests of survey knowledge, the current research finds evidence that computer model exposure has variable affects on participants over extended periods of time.

Knowledge acquisition tools based on personal construct psychology

AbstractKnowledge acquisition research supports the generation of knowledge-based systems through the development of principles, techniques, methodologies and tools. What differentiates knowledge-based system development from conventional system development is the emphasis on in-depth understanding and formalization of the relations between the conceptual structures underlying expert performance and the computational structures capable of emulating that performance.Personal construct psychology is a theory of individual and group psychological and social processes that has been used extensively in knowledge acquisition research to model the cognitive processes of human experts. The psychology takes a constructivist position appropriate to the modelling of human knowledge processes, but develops this through the characterization of human conceptual structures in axiomatic terms that translate directly to computational form. In particular, there is a close correspondence between the intensional logics of knowledge, belief and action developed in personal construct psychology, and the intensional logics for formal knowledge representation developed in artificial intelligence research as term subsumption, or KL-ONE-like, systems.This paper gives an overview of personal construct psychology and its expression as an intensional logic describing the cognitive processes of anticipatory agents, and uses this to survey knowledge acquisition tools deriving from personal construct psychology.

Map Display Design

This paper presents a cognitive model of a pilot's navigation task and describes an experiment comparing a visual momentum map display to the traditional track-up and north-up approaches. The data show the advantage to a track-up map is its congruence with the ego-centered forward view; however, the development of survey knowledge is hindered by the inconsistency of the rotating display. The stable alignment of a north-up map aids the acquisition of survey knowledge, but there is a cost associated with the mental rotation of the display to a track-up alignment for ego-centered tasks. The results also show that visual momentum can be used to reduce the mental rotation costs of a north-up display.