The role of cognitive maps in familiarity and wayfinding

Wayfinding is a difficult task that can be broken down into the interaction of a user with spatial information. It has been found that participants that are familiar with an environment are more successful at wayfinding than those that are not. It has also been found that participants that are familiar with an environment give wayfinding descriptions differently. This poster begins to examine familiarity in terms of the cognitive map. By exploring the formation of a cognitive map over time we can begin to examine the relationship between the cognitive map, familiarity with an environment, and wayfinding success. This poster outlines an experimental design for future work that examines these three areas togethe

Global Landmarks in a Complex Indoor Environment

Wayfinding in complex indoor environments can be a difficult and disorienting activity. Many factors contribute to this difficulty, including the variable number of floors and half-floors paired with many different and often unpredictable ways to get from one floor to another. In order to explore how the spatial information of floor to floor transitions is represented cognitively, a user study was conducted at the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History that drew on experienced participants from the Visitor Services Department. The participants were asked to give wayfinding descriptions to and from several landmarks in the museums with the majority of the routes spanning multiple floors. It was found that floor to floor transition points were often represented as landmarks with notable locations in the Museums being represented with both functional and referential aspects. A functional aspect of a floor to floor transition points meant that its purpose in the wayfinding description was to provide a means to get from one floor to another. A referential quality meant that a floor to floor transition points was simply an indemnity and did not serve as a way to move vertically through the environment. This finding informs the discussion on global landmarks and their representation and salience in large complex indoor environments

A Comprehensive Study of Internal Representations of Floor to Floor Transitions Points in a Large Complex Indoor Environment

Wayfinding in complex indoor environments can be a stressful and disorienting activity. Many factors contribute to this difficulty, one reason being the number of floors paired with many different and often unpredictable ways to get from one floor to another. This dissertation focuses on providing a comprehensive analysis of how the human cognitive system represents the spatial information in floor to floor transition points. In particular, this project will focus on the internal representations formed by people familiar with a particular complex environment. In order to accomplish this, a user study was conducted at the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History that drew participants from the Visitor Services Department. Participants were asked to give wayfinding descriptions to and from several landmarks in the museums with the majority of the routes spanning multiple floors. Both verbal descriptions and sketch map descriptions were studied. It was found that floor to floor transition points were often represented as landmarks with two landmarks in particular being represented often as both functional as well as reorientation landmarks. This finding continues the discussion on global landmarks and their representation and salience in large complex indoor environments

How do the movement patterns of homeless youth affect their information seeking behaviors within the systems provided to them

This work provides a reflection on the relationship between movement patterns, homeless youth, and their information seeking behaviors within the information systems they have access to in order to find help. While understudied, the relationship between the movement patterns of the homeless youth population could be used to build information systems that are customized to the way this population looks for and uses resources. We propose a two phase user study focused on homeless youth that consists of a semi-structured interview as well as a user study on a tool they use to locate resources for help

A Study of ELL Adult’s Use of Mobile Communication Applications: an Examination of Tie Strength

This study begins to examine the problems that surround the usability and design of mobile communication applications for E.L.L (English Language Learner) immigrant adults in the United States by looking at the intent of this population when using phones. A user study was conducted where ELL immigrant adults answered questions about their mobile phone use. The results show that ELL immigrant adults use their smart phones daily and communicate with their friends and family, showing that maintenance of strong ties is important to this community. We hope this study moves towards an inclusive application that takes into account the relationship maintenance needs of this community

Towards the Creation of Cognitively Salient Wayfinding Aids for Emergency First Responders

This work presents a literature review on the creation of a cognitively salient wayfinding aid for emergency first responders. The importance of the topic as well as the contributing areas are discussed. Areas include indoor naviga-tion, cognitive aspects of wayfinding, and representations of space. A study focused on determining the interactions of first responders with spatial in-formation is proposed to help fill the gaps in the literature

The role of cognitive maps in familiarity and wayfinding

Wayfinding is a difficult task that can be broken down into the interaction of a user with spatial information. It has been found that participants that are familiar with an environment are more successful at wayfinding than those that are not. It has also been found that participants that are familiar with an environment give wayfinding descriptions differently. This poster begins to examine familiarity in terms of the cognitive map. By exploring the formation of a cognitive map over time we can begin to examine the relationship between the cognitive map, familiarity with an environment, and wayfinding success. This poster outlines an experimental design for future work that examines these three areas togethe

Textual Directions and Cognitive Workload

This project examines and compares the inferred cognitive workload of detailed and non-detailed textual directions in a navigation task. A user study was conducted where participants navigated through two virtual worlds, one urban and one rural, while following detailed and concise sets of textual directions. While navigating, a secondary task measure was used to infer cognitive workload. It was found that although there is no statistical difference between the detailed and non-detailed directions in both environments, there was a difference between the measured cognitive workload and the perceived cognitive workload on the rural map. A trend was also present on one of the maps that showed detailed directions in a simple environment may be redundant. It is important to know how many cognitive resources are allocated when performing a navigation task because it gives insight into how automatically generated directions, in systems such as GPS, should be disseminated to users. It also gives insight into how to communicate spatial information in general.publishedye

Understanding landmarks in spatial information: Does sentiment provide enough context?

This literature review focuses on combining spatial information communicated about a landmark and sentiment analysis techniques. In spatial information processing literature, the definition of a landmark remains elusive. We propose to have a study apply sentiment labeling models to landmark definition. However, instead of seeking an umbrella definition for the intangible landmark, it may be more relevant to classify individual landmarks re-cursively, using a methodology that accounts for its subjectivity. A goal to apply sentiment labeling models to the landmark definition

Understanding ESL adults’ decisions in mobile communication apps: Towards the development of an inclusive app

Individuals in the English as a Second Language (ESL) immigrant community are one of the many affected by the “digital divide.” However, the prevalence of mobile technology has helped bridge this gap. It has been found that decision support systems can be used to connect to ESL immigrant adults’ information needs. Mobile application usability and design can also provide information on how users approach certain mobile applications.  By exploring these relationships between decision support systems and usability of application design, this poster can help inform application developers with best practices in design and potentially work towards an inclusive communication application