Representing Space in Cognition

This book considers how people talk about their environment, find their way in new surroundings, and plan routes. Part I explores the empirical insights gained from research in the cognitive underpinnings of spatial representation in language. Part II proposes solutions for capturing such insights formally, and in Part III authors discuss how theory is put into practice through spatial assistance systems. These three perspectives stem from research disciplines which deal with the spatial domain in different ways, and which often remain separate. In this book they are combined so as to highlight both the state of the art in the field and the benefit of building bridges between methodologies and disciplines. Finding our way and planning routes is relevant to us all; this book ultimately helps improve our everyday lives.1. Introduction ; PART I: EMPIRICAL INSIGHTS ; 2. Describing the Way Out of a Cornfield: Understanding congitive underpinnings of comprehending survey and route descriptions ; 3. Spatial Representations for Described and Perceived Locations ; 4. The Processing of Landmarks in Route Directions ; PART II: COMPUTATIONAL MODELS ; 5. Selection of Reference Objectives for Locative Expressions: The importance of knowledge and perception ; 6. Spatial prototypes ; 7. Learning to Interpret Spatial Natural Language in Terms of Qualitative Spatial Relations ; PART III: INTUITIVE ASSISTANCE ; 8. Cognitive Operations in Tour Planning ; 9. Navigation Assistance for Blind Pedestrians: Guidelines for the design of devices and implications for spatial cognition ; 10. A Computational Model of Cooperative Spatial Behaviour for Virtual Humans ; 11. The 'Space' in Spatial Assistance Systems: Conception, formalisation, and computation