Spring 2010
Geog 596:  Graduate Seminar (3 units), Group Directed Readings
Wednesday evenings 5–7pm
Ellison 5824 (5th floor conference room across from elevators)

“Functions and Applications of Spatial Cognition”
Co-Facilitators: Professors Dan Montello and Martin Raubal

This seminar will focus on basic and applied research on human spatial cognition, its role in life activities and experiences, and how the study of spatial cognition can inform applications such as designing environments, designing tools and systems (e.g., mobile geoinformation services), designing training, and selecting personnel.

Students will register for the seminar as units of Geog 596: Directed Reading and Research, either under Dan’s or Martin’s name.  So the seminar is essentially a group directed readings seminar.  Although there will be no exams or papers to be written as part of this seminar, students will be expected to attend and participate in the seminar, including making one or more presentations of research or readings to the class. 

Schedule and Readings

Week 1, March 31, Introduction

Overview of perception and cognition; Overview of space and spatiality; What are functions and applications of spatial cognition, both specialized and everyday?; What do people use spatial technologies for?

Week 2, April 7, Navigation I: Basics of Human Navigation

Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (Ch. 2).
Montello, D. R. (2005). Navigation. In P. Shah & A. Miyake (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of visuospatial thinking (pp. 257-294). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Raubal, M., Egenhofer, M. J., Pfoser, D., & Tryfona, N. (1997). Structuring space with image schemata: Wayfinding in airports as a case study. In S. C. Hirtle & A. U. Frank (Eds.), Spatial information theory: A theoretical basis for GIS (pp. 85-102). Berlin: Springer.

Week 3, April 14, Navigation II: Maps

Aretz, A. J., & Wickens, C. D. (1992). The mental rotation of map displays. Human Performance, 5, 303-328.
Dillemuth, J. (2005). Map design evaluation for mobile display. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 32, 285-301.
Tversky, B., & Lee, P. U. (1999). Pictorial and verbal tools for conveying routes. In C. Freksa & D. M. Mark (Eds.), Spatial information theory: Cognitive and computational foundations of geographic information science (pp. 51-64). Berlin: Springer.

Week 4, April 21, Navigation III: Route Directions

Denis, M., Michon, P.-E., & Tom, A. (2007). Assisting pedestrian wayfinding in urban settings: Why references to landmarks are crucial in direction-giving. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Applied spatial cognition: From research to cognitive technology (pp. 25-51). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Klippel, A. (2003). Wayfinding choremes. In W. Kuhn, M. Worboys, & S. Timpf (Eds.), Spatial information theory: Foundations of geographic information science (Vol. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2825, pp. 301-315). Berlin: Springer.
Kray, C., Elting, C., Laakso, K., & Coors, V. (2003). Presenting route instructions on mobile devices. Proceedings of IUI'03 (pp. 117-124). New York: ACM Press.

Week 5, April 28, Navigation IV: Interface Design

Goebl, M., & Färber, G. (2008). Interfaces for integrating cognitive functions into intelligent vehicles. Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (pp. 1093-1100). Eindhoven, The Netherlands, June 4-6, 2008.
Patel, K., Chen, M. Y., Smith, I., & Landay, J. A. (2006). Personalizing routes. Proceedings of 19th annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2006) (pp. 187-190). October 15-18, 2006, Montreux, Switzerland.
Sadeghian, P., & Kantardzic, M. (2008). The new generation of automatic landmark detection systems: Challenges and guidelines. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 8, 252-287.
Taylor, H. A., Brunye, T. T., & Taylor, S. (2008). Spatial Mental Representation: Implications for Navigation System Design. In C. M. Carswell (Ed.), Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics Vol. 4 (pp. 1-40). Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Week 6, May 6, Navigation V: Are We There Yet?

Ishikawa, T., Fujiwara, H., Imai, O., & Okabe, A. (2008). Wayfinding with a GPS-based mobile navigation system: A comparison with maps and direct experience. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28, 74-82.
Montello, D. R., & Sas, C. (2006). Human factors of wayfinding in navigation. In W. Karwowski (Ed.), International encyclopedia of ergonomics and human factors, 2nd ed. (pp. 2003-2008). London: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Parush, A., Ahuvia-Pick, S., & Erev, I. (2007). Degradation in spatial knowledge acquisition when using automatic navigation systems. In S. Winter, M. Duckham, L. Kulik, & B. Kuipers (Eds.), Spatial information theory (pp. 238-254). Berlin: Springer.

Week 7, May 12, Cognitive Aspects of Other GIS/SIS

Albert, W. S., & Golledge, R. G. (1999). The use of spatial cognitive abilities in geographical information systems: The map overlay operation. Transactions in GIS, 3(1), 7-21.
Hirtle, S. C., & Sorrows, M. E. (2007). Navigation in electronic environments. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Applied spatial cognition: From research to cognitive technology (pp. 103-126). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Montello, D. R. (2009). Cognitive research in GIScience: Recent achievements and future prospects. Geography Compass, 3(5), 1824–1840.
Raubal, M. (2009). Cognitive engineering for geographic information science. Geography Compass, 3(3), 1087-1104.

Week 8, May 19, Development of Geospatial Thought

Golledge, R., Marsh, M., & Battersby, S. (2008). A conceptual framework for facilitating geospatial thinking. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 98(2), 285-308.
Liben, L. S. (1999). Developing an understanding of external spatial representations. In I. E. Sigel (Ed.), Development of mental representation: Theories and applications (pp. 297-321). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Newcombe, N. S., & Huttenlocher, J. (2000). Making space: The development of spatial representation and reasoning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (Ch. 2)

Week 9, May 26, Geo/Spatial Education

Committee on Support for Thinking Spatially: The Incorporation of Geographic Information Science Across the K-12 Curriculum, N. R. C. (2006). Learning to think spatially. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. (Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Appendix C)
Kastens, K. A., and Ishikawa, T. (2006). Spatial thinking in the geosciences and cognitive sciences: A cross-disciplinary look at the intersection of the two fields. In C. A. Manduca and D. Mogk, D. (Eds.), Earth and mind: How geologists think and learn about the Earth. Geological Society of America Special Paper 413 (pp. 51–74).
Liben, L. S., Kastens, K. A., & Stevenson, L. M. (2002). Real-world knowledge through real-world maps: A developmental guide for navigating the educational terrain. Developmental Review, 22, 267–322.

Week 10, June 2, Miscellaneous

Hayes-Roth, B., & Hayes-Roth, F. (1979). A cognitive model of planning. Cognitive Science, 3, 275-310.
Hegarty, M., Keehner, M., Cohen, C. A., Montello, D. R., & Lippa, Y. (2007). The role of spatial cognition in medicine: Applications for selecting and training professionals. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Applied spatial cognition: From research to cognitive technology (pp. 285-315). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Werner, S., & Schindler, L. E. (2004). The role of spatial reference frames in architecture: Misalignment impairs way-finding performance. Environment and Behavior, 36, 461-482.

Additional Readings

Allen, G. L. (1997). From knowledge to words to wayfinding: Issues in the production and comprehension of route directions. In S. C. Hirtle & A. U. Frank (Eds.), Spatial information theory: A theoretical basis for GIS (pp. 363-372). Berlin: Springer.
Allen, G. L. (Ed.). (2007). Applied spatial cognition: From research to cognitive technology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Alm, H. (1993). Human factors considerations in vehicle navigation aids. In D. Medyckyj-Scott & H. Hearnshaw (Eds.), Human factors in GIS (pp. 148-157). London: Belhaven Press.
Aretz, A. J., & Wickens, C. D. (1992). The mental rotation of map displays. Human Performance, 5, 303-328.
Arthur, P., & Passini, R. (1992). Wayfinding: People, signs, and architecture. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
Avraamides, M. N., Loomis, J. M., Klatzky, R. L., & Golledge, R. G. (2004). Functional equivalence of spatial representations derived from vision and language: Evidence from allocentric judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 801-814.
Bailenson, J. N., Shum, M. S., & Uttal, D. H. (2000). The initial segment strategy: A heuristic for route selection. Memory & Cognition, 28, 306-318.
Battersby, S. E., & Montello, D. R. (2009). Area estimation of world regions and the projection of the global-scale cognitive map. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 99, 273-291.
Berendt, B., Rauh, R., & Barkowsky, T. (1998). Spatial thinking with geographic maps: An empirical study. In H. Czap, H. P. Ohly, & S. Pribbenow (Eds.), Herausforderungen an die Wissensorganisation: Visualisierung, multimediale Dokumente, Internetstrukturen (pp. 63-73). Würzburg: Ergon.
Binet, M. A. (1894). Reverse illusions of orientation. Psychological Review, 1, 337-350.
Bloom, P., Peterson, M. A., Nadel, L., & Garrett, M. F. (1996). Language and space. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Bronzaft, A. L., Dobrow, S. B., & O'Hanlon, T. J. (1976). Spatial orientation in a subway system. Environment and Behavior, 8, 575-594.
Bryant, K. J. (1982). Personality correlates of sense of direction and geographical orientation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 1318-1324.
Burns, P. C. (1998). Wayfinding errors while driving. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18, 209-217.
Carpman, J. R., & Grant, M. A. (2002). Wayfinding: A broad view. In R. B. Bechtel & A. Churchman (Eds.), Handbook of environmental psychology (pp. 427-442). New York: Wiley.
Cornell, E. C., Heth, C. D., Kneubuhler, Y., & Sehgal, S. (1996). Serial position effects in children's route reversal errors: Implications for police search operations. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 301-326.
Denis, M., Pazzaglia, F., Cornoldi, C., & Bertolo, L. (1999). Spatial discourse and navigation: An analysis of route directions in the city of Venice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 13, 145-174.
Fabrikant, S. I., Montello, D. R., & Mark, D. M. (in press). The natural landscape metaphor in information visualization: The role of commonsense geomorphology. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
Golledge, R. G. (1999). Human wayfinding and cognitive maps. In R. G. Golledge (Ed.), Wayfinding behavior: Cognitive mapping and other spatial processes (pp. 5-45). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
Golledge, R. G. (2002). The nature of geographic knowledge. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92(1), 1-14.
Harwood, K., & Wickens, C. D. (1991). Frames of reference for helicopter electronic maps: The relevance of spatial cognition and componential analysis. The International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 1(1), 5–23.
Hegarty, M., & Just, M. A. (1993). Constructing mental models of machines from text and diagrams. Journal of Memory and Language, 32, 717-742.
Hegarty, M., Richardson, A. E., Montello, D. R., Lovelace, K., & Subbiah, I. (2002). Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability. Intelligence, 30, 425-447.
Hill, K. A. (1992). Spatial competence of elderly hunters. Environment and Behavior, 24, 779-794.
Hirtle, S. and J. Jonides (1985). "Evidence of Hierarchies in Cognitive Maps." Memory & Cognition 13(3): 208-217.
Hirtle, S. C., & Sorrows, M. E. (1998). Designing a multi-modal tool for locating buildings on a college campus. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18(3), 265-276.
Hoelscher, C., Mellinger, T., Vrachliotis, G., Broesamle, M., & Knauff, M. (2006). Up the down staircase: Wayfinding strategies in multi-level buildings. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26, 284-299.
Hutchins, E., & Hinton, G. E. (1984). Why the islands move. Perception, 13, 629-632.
Ishikawa, T., & Montello, D. R. (2006). Spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the environment: Individual differences in the development of metric knowledge and the integration of separately learned places. Cognitive Psychology, 52, 93-129.
Kali, Y., & Orion, N. (1996). Spatial abilities of high-school students in the perception of geologic structures. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33, 369-391.
Keehner, M., Lippa, Y., Montello, D. R., Tendick, F., & Hegarty, M. (2006). Learning a spatial skill for surgery: How the contributions of abilities change with practice. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 20, 487-503.
Klippel, A., Freksa, C., & Winter, S. (2006). You-are-here maps in emergencies: The danger of getting lost. Journal of Spatial Science, 51(1), 117–131.
Llobera, M. (2003). Extending GIS-based visual analysis: The concept of visualscapes. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 17, 25-48.
Loomis, J. M., Lippa, Y., Klatzky, R. L., & Golledge, R. G. (2002). Spatial updating of locations specified by 3-D sound and spatial language. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28, 335-345.
MacGregor, J. N., Ormerod, T. C., & Chronicle, E. P. (2000). A model of human performance on the traveling salesperson problem. Memory & Cognition, 28(7), 1183-1190.
Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S. J., & Frith, C. D. (2000). Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 97, 4398-4403.
Mark, D. M., Gould, M. D., & McGranaghan, M. (1987). Computerized navigation assistance for drivers. Professional Geographer, 39, 215-220.
McClurg, P. A., & Chaill‚, C. (1987). Computer games: Environments for developing spatial cognition? Journal of Educational Computing Research, 3, 95-111.
McGranaghan, M., Mark, D. M., & Gould, M. D. (1987). Automated provision of navigation assistance to drivers. The American Cartographer, 14, 121-138.
Medyckyj-Scott, D., & Blades, M. (1992). Human spatial cognition:  Its relevance to the design and use of spatial information systems. Geoforum, 23, 215-226.
Medyckyj-Scott, D., & Hearnshaw, H. (1993). Human factors in GIS. London: Belhaven Press.
Montello, D. R. (1991). Spatial orientation and the angularity of urban routes: A field study. Environment and Behavior, 23, 47-69.
Montello, D. R. (2008). Review of “Learning to Think Spatially” by the Committee on Support for Thinking Spatially: The Incorporation of Geographic Information Science Across the K–12 Curriculum, the National Research Council. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 28, 104-106.
Montello, D. R., & Freundschuh, S. M. (1995). Sources of spatial knowledge and their implications for GIS:  An introduction. Geographical Systems, 2, 169-176.
Montello, D. R., & Freundschuh, S. M. (2005). Cognition of geographic information. In R. B. McMaster & E. L. Usery (Eds.), A research agenda for geographic information science (pp. 61-91). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Montello, D. R., Goodchild, M. F., Gottsegen, J., & Fohl, P. (2003). Where's downtown?:  Behavioral methods for determining referents of vague spatial queries. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 3, 185-204.
Montello, D. R., Waller, D., Hegarty, M., & Richardson, A. E. (2004). Spatial memory of real environments, virtual environments, and maps. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Human spatial memory: Remembering where (pp. 251-285). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Montello, D. R., Waller, D., Hegarty, M., & Richardson, A. E. (2004). Spatial memory of real environments, virtual environments, and maps. In G. L. Allen (Ed.), Human spatial memory: Remembering where (pp. 251-285). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Muenzer, S., Zimmer, H. D., Schwalm, M., Baus, J., & Aslan, I. (2006). Computer-assisted navigation and the acquisition of route and survey knowledge. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 26, 300-308.
Nothegger, C., S. Winter, et al. (2004). "Selection of Salient Features for Route Directions." Spatial Cognition and Computation 4(2): 113-136.
O'Neill, M. J. (1991). Effects of signage and floor plan configuration on wayfinding accuracy. Environment and Behavior, 23, 553-574.
Passini, R. (1992). Wayfinding in architecture. (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
Passini, R., Pigot, H., Rainville, C., & Tetreault, M. H. (2000). Wayfinding in a nursing home for advanced dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Environment and Behavior, 32, 684-710.
Plumert, J. M. (1993). The development of children's spatial knowledge: Implications for geographic education. Cartographic Perspectives, 16, 9-18.
Presson, C. C., & Montello, D. R. (1988). Points of reference in spatial cognition: Stalking the elusive landmark. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 6, 378-381.
Provo, J., Lamar, C., & Newby, T. (2002). Using a cross section to train veterinary students to visualize anatomical structures in three dimensions. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39, 10-34.
Raubal, M. and M. Egenhofer (1998). "Comparing the complexity of wayfinding tasks in built environments." Environment & Planning B 25(6): 895-913.
Raubal, M. (2001). "Human wayfinding in unfamiliar buildings: a simulation with a cognizing agent." Cognitive Processing 2(2-3): 363-388.
Raubal, M., & Winter, S. (2002). Enriching wayfinding instructions with local landmarks. In M. J. Egenhofer & D. M. Mark (Eds.), Geographic Information Science: Second International Conference, GIScience 2002 (Vol. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2478, pp. 243-259). Berlin: Springer.
Riesbeck, C. K. (1980). "You can't miss it!": Judging the clarity of directions. Cognitive Science, 4, 285-303.
Streeter, L. A., Vitello, D., & Wonsiewicz, S. A. (1985). How to tell people where to go: comparing navigational aids. International Journal of Man/Machine Studies, 22, 549-562.
Weisman, J. (1981). Evaluating architectural legibility: Way-finding in the built environment. Environment and Behavior, 13, 189-204.
Williamson, J., & Barrow, C. (1994). Errors in everyday routefinding: A classification of types and possible causes. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 8, 513-524.
Wright, R., Thompson, W. L., Ganis, G., Newcombe, N. S., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2008). Training generalized spatial skills. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(4), 763-771.
Yoshioka, J. G. (1942). A direction-orientation study with visitors at the New York