Communication Of Spatial Information Research Articles

Unpacking the navigation toolbox: insights from comparative cognition.

The study of navigation is informed by ethological data from many species, laboratory investigation at behavioural and neurobiological levels, and computational modelling. However, the data are often species-specific, making it challenging to develop general models of how biology supports behaviour. Wiener et al. outlined a framework for organizing the results across taxa, called the 'navigation toolbox' (Wiener et al. In Animal thinking: contemporary issues in comparative cognition (eds R Menzel, J Fischer), pp. 51-76). This framework proposes that spatial cognition is a hierarchical process in which sensory inputs at the lowest level are successively combined into ever-more complex representations, culminating in a metric or quasi-metric internal model of the world (cognitive map). Some animals, notably humans, also use symbolic representations to produce an external representation, such as a verbal description, signpost or map that allows communication of spatial information or instructions between individuals. Recently, new discoveries have extended our understanding of how spatial representations are constructed, highlighting that the hierarchical relationships are bidirectional, with higher levels feeding back to influence lower levels. In the light of these new developments, we revisit the navigation toolbox, elaborate it and incorporate new findings. The toolbox provides a common framework within which the results from different taxa can be described and compared, yielding a more detailed, mechanistic and generalized understanding of navigation.

“I Am Here”: Investigating the Relationship Between Sense ofDirection and Communication of Spatial Information

Navigation is critical for everyday tasks but is especially important for urban search and rescue (USAR) contexts. Aside from successful navigation, individuals must also be able to effectively communicate spatial information. This study investigates how differences in spatial ability affected overall performance in a USAR task in a simulated Minecraft environment and the effectiveness of an individual’s ability to communicate their location verbally. Randomly selected participants were asked to rescue as many victims as possible in three 10-minute missions. Results showed that sense of direction may not predict the ability to communicate spatial information, and that the skill of processing spatial information may be distinct from the ability to communicate spatial information to others. We discuss the implications of these findings for teaming contexts that involve both processes.

Similarities in dance follower behaviour across honey bee species suggest a conserved mechanism of dance communication

Social communication systems are predominantly multimodal and can combine modulatory and information-bearing signals. The honey bee waggle dance, one of the most elaborate forms of social communication in animals, activates nestmates to search for food and communicates symbolic information about the location of the food source. Previous studies on the dance behaviour in diverse honey bee species demonstrated distinct differences in the concurrence of visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile signals produced by the dancer. We studied the behaviour of dance signal receivers, the dance followers, to explore the potential significance of different signals in the communication process. In particular, we asked whether the behaviour of dance followers differs between the three major Asian honey bee species, Apis florea, Apis dorsata and Apis cerana, and whether this might correlate with the differences in the signals produced by the dancing foragers. Our comparison demonstrated that the behaviour of the dance followers is highly similar across all three species. The mean body orientation of the dance followers with respect to the waggle dancer was close to 90° throughout the run, with the majority positioning themselves lateral to the dancer. These findings suggest that the communication of spatial information might be more conserved than implied by the differences in the signals produced by the dancer. Along with studies in Apis mellifera, our results suggest that all honey bee species rely on tactile contacts between the dancer and follower to communicate spatial information. The cues and signals that differ between the species may be involved in attracting the followers towards the dancer or increasing their motivation to start foraging in the different nest environments.

Where Spatial Visualization Meets Landscape Research and \u201cPinballology\u201d: Examples of Landscape Construction in Pinball Games

Maps and map-like visualizations in digital games have been repeatedly addressed in research of cartography and related disciplines. For example, visualization techniques and tools used in video and computer games, including navigation and locomotion tools in VR gaming, have been analyzed and adopted to VR-based 3D cartographic modeling in recent time. A successful and diversified game which has only hardly been considered in the literature so far is pinball. Modern pinball machines are equipped with sophisticated map-like playfields (and other related components) that allow pinball players to immerse into a rapidly changing spatial story which is directed by the pinball movement. The (endless) game of skill is cognitively challenging and it sometimes even ‘plays with’ overloading the cognitive capacity of players by activating a multitude of multisensory (spatial) events. An overloaded communication of spatial information is apparently part of the success story of the game. The successful story of pinball also includes several characteristic themes that seem to fascinate the worldwide community of players (and retro fans). These themes, including their map-like visualizations, invite players to be involved into the rapid spatial story, and they include many ‘triggers’ for the individual and social construction of landscapes. These landscapes can fulfill desires for escapism. This article presents characteristic examples of successful and established modern pinball themes and discusses their potentials for landscape construction, from a social constructivist perspective.

Coherent Coding of Spatial Position Mediated by Theta Oscillations in the Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex.

Interactions between the hippocampus (area CA1) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are crucial for memory-guided behavior. Theta oscillations (∼8 Hz) underlie a key physiological mechanism for mediating these coordinated interactions, and theta oscillatory coherence and phase-locked spiking in the two regions have been shown to be important for spatial memory. Hippocampal place-cell activity associated with theta oscillations encodes spatial position during behavior, and theta phase-associated spiking is known to further mediate a temporal code for space within CA1 place fields. Although prefrontal neurons are prominently phase-locked to hippocampal theta oscillations in spatial memory tasks, whether and how theta oscillations mediate processing of spatial information across these networks remains unclear. Here, we addressed these questions using simultaneous recordings of dorsal CA1-PFC ensembles and population decoding analyses in male rats performing a continuous spatial working memory task known to require hippocampal-prefrontal interactions. We found that in addition to CA1, population activity in PFC can also encode the animal's current spatial position on a theta-cycle timescale during memory-guided behavior. Coding of spatial position was coherent for CA1 and PFC ensembles, exhibiting correlated position representations within theta cycles. In addition, incorporating theta-phase information during decoding to account for theta-phase associated spiking resulted in a significant improvement in the accuracy of prefrontal spatial representations, similar to concurrent CA1 representations. These findings indicate a theta-oscillation-mediated mechanism of temporal coordination for shared processing and communication of spatial information across the two networks during spatial memory-guided behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Theta oscillation- (∼8 Hz) mediated interactions between the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are known to be important for spatial memory. Hippocampal place-cell activity associated with theta oscillations underlies a rate and temporal code for spatial position, but it is not known whether these oscillations mediate simultaneous coding of spatial information in hippocampal-prefrontal networks. Here, we found that population activity in prefrontal cortex encodes animals' current position coherently with hippocampal populations on a theta-cycle timescale. Further we found that theta phase-associated spiking significantly improves prefrontal coding of spatial position, in parallel with hippocampal coding. Our findings establish that theta oscillations mediate a temporal coordination mechanism for coherent coding of spatial position in hippocampal-prefrontal networks during memory-guided behavior.

Team performance in networked supervisory control of unmanned air vehicles: effects of automation, working memory, and communication content.

Assess team performance within a net-worked supervisory control setting while manipulating automated decision aids and monitoring team communication and working memory ability. Networked systems such as multi-unmanned air vehicle (UAV) supervision have complex properties that make prediction of human-system performance difficult. Automated decision aid can provide valuable information to operators, individual abilities can limit or facilitate team performance, and team communication patterns can alter how effectively individuals work together. We hypothesized that reliable automation, higher working memory capacity, and increased communication rates of task-relevant information would offset performance decrements attributed to high task load. Two-person teams performed a simulated air defense task with two levels of task load and three levels of automated aid reliability. Teams communicated and received decision aid messages via chat window text messages. Task Load x Automation effects were significant across all performance measures. Reliable automation limited the decline in team performance with increasing task load. Average team spatial working memory was a stronger predictor than other measures of team working memory. Frequency of team rapport and enemy location communications positively related to team performance, and word count was negatively related to team performance. Reliable decision aiding mitigated team performance decline during increased task load during multi-UAV supervisory control. Team spatial working memory, communication of spatial information, and team rapport predicted team success. An automated decision aid can improve team performance under high task load. Assessment of spatial working memory and the communication of task-relevant information can help in operator and team selection in supervisory control systems.

Learning what children know about space from looking at their hands: The added value of gesture in spatial communication

This article examines two issues: the role of gesture in the communication of spatial information and the relation between communication and mental representation. Children (8–10years) and adults walked through a space to learn the locations of six hidden toy animals and then explained the space to another person. In Study 1, older children and adults typically gestured when describing the space and rarely provided spatial information in speech without also providing the information in gesture. However, few 8-year-olds communicated spatial information in speech or gesture. Studies 2 and 3 showed that 8-year-olds did understand the spatial arrangement of the animals and could communicate spatial information if prompted to use their hands. Taken together, these results indicate that gesture is important for conveying spatial relations at all ages and, as such, provides us with a more complete picture of what children do and do not know about communicating spatial relations.

Theoretical and Practical Deliberations with regard to Semi-Automated Cartographic Generalization

Cartographic information originating in 'map-space' has a central role in the communication of spatial information. Cartographic information used for visualizing geo-referenced data, is always created at a certain scale, where a physiognomic simplification is carried out resulting in substantial reduction and abstraction. This takes place as part of an extensive modelling process which includes cartographic generalization and visualization. This process, caused by the complexity of steps in generalization, and supported in a cartographic information system cannot be carried out automatically. INTERGRAPH's Map Generalizer® is an interactive tool for semi-automated cartographic generalization. In this experiment its functions are applied to cartographic modelling of linear and areal map objects. Different algorithms were used and the best parameters for transferring hydrology, relief, and forest geometry from a scale of 1:50 000 to 1:200 000 were determined.

Theoretical and Practical Deliberations with regard to Semi-Automated Cartographic Generalization

Cartographic information originating in 'map-space' has a central role in the communication of spatial information. Cartographic information used for visualizing geo-referenced data, is always created at a certain scale, where a physiognomic simplification is carried out resulting in substantial reduction and abstraction. This takes place as part of an extensive modelling process which includes cartographic generalization and visualization. This process, caused by the complexity of steps in generalization, and supported in a cartographic information system cannot be carried out automatically. INTERGRAPH's Map Generalizer® is an interactive tool for semi-automated cartographic generalization. In this experiment its functions are applied to cartographic modelling of linear and areal map objects. Different algorithms were used and the best parameters for transferring hydrology, relief, and forest geometry from a scale of 1:50 000 to 1:200 000 were determined.

Colour – Difficult to Both Choose and Use in Practice

Colour is a very important visual variable and is often used for the communication of information in maps, graphics and diagrams. In cartography, the use of colour, in both a traditional and an electronic medium, has been widely discussed. With the growing use of a range of computer software (cartographic, remote sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and more recently the Internet or World Wide Web) as the main environment in which to design and create maps, and the availability of more sophisticated hardware, there is now an even greater opportunity and freedom of choice to make use of colour as a vital component in the communication of spatial information. The question is how to handle all these colours. This paper explores the importance of both the choice and use of colour in a paper and an electronic medium, and examines some of the ways in which more careful choice of colour can be encouraged in practice to ensure that the growing freedom of use considers the correct use of colour.

Colour – Difficult to Both Choose and Use in Practice

Colour is a very important visual variable and is often used for the communication of information in maps, graphics and diagrams. In cartography, the use of colour, in both a traditional and an electronic medium, has been widely discussed. With the growing use of a range of computer software (cartographic, remote sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and more recently the Internet or World Wide Web) as the main environment in which to design and create maps, and the availability of more sophisticated hardware, there is now an even greater opportunity and freedom of choice to make use of colour as a vital component in the communication of spatial information. The question is how to handle all these colours. This paper explores the importance of both the choice and use of colour in a paper and an electronic medium, and examines some of the ways in which more careful choice of colour can be encouraged in practice to ensure that the growing freedom of use considers the correct use of colour.

A cluster analysis model for predicting visual clusters

The communication of spatial information is enhanced if geographers are able to predict the patterns that map readers perceive. By comparing predicted patterns with their own, geographers can decide whether or not a map will portray the intended message. One way to accomplish this goal is to model the way in which readers combine symbols to form patterns. For this purpose, the mathematical technique of cluster analysis is used to simulate how readers visually cluster circles on graduated symbol maps.