Analyzing Cognitive Conceptualizations Using Interactive Visual Environments

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The conceptualization of spatio-temporal information is an interdisciplinary research area. The focus of this article is on human conceptualizations of spatio-temporal geographic phenomena (also referred to as events). Identifying and understanding human conceptualizations is a crucial component in defining the semantics of spatiotemporal information. However, most research focuses primarily on how humans imbue dynamic phenomena with meaning on a general level. In contrast, this article is concerned with contextual factors (specifically: individual differences) that are too often neglected in general theories and in the analysis of behavioral data. In other words, we are interested in individual or group strategies of participants that are not detected by classical analysis methods. Research on individual difference is gaining widespread attention in cognitive and spatial sciences and it is time to consider individual differences in the area of conceptualizing spatio-temporal information. To be able to shed light on individual differences in behavioral data on how people conceptualize events, we have developed software solutions and combined them with established similarity measures. These software solutions allow analysts to effectively explore individual differences. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, its usefulness in analyzing behavioral data, and results that can be obtained through this individualized analysis by reanalyzing four sets of experimental data we previously collected.

User studies in cartography: opportunities for empirical research on interactive maps and visualizations

“…Çöltekin, Heil, Garlandini, & Fabrikant, 2009;Haklay & Zafiri, 2008;Ooms et al, 2015;Roth et al, 2011) and 'reanalysis' articles applying a range of techniques to a compilation of previously published studies as a new, methodological contribution (e.g. Davies, 1998;Klippel, Weaver, & Robinson, 2011).…”

Spatial Preposition Use in Indoor Scene Descriptions

“…Half of the participants were asked to create these short spatial descriptions for a hypothetical person who could see the VE scene themselves and the other half of participants were asked to create the short descriptions for a hypothetical BLV user. This methodological approach has been used in a similar study investigating NL descriptions of spatial relations in outdoor geographic space (Klippel, Weaver and Robinson 2011).…”

“…This is a similar approach used in previous studies investigating NL representation of scene elements in geographic space (Klippel, Weaver and Robinson 2011). The final experiment asked participants to look at a VE scenes and then evaluate a spatial prepositions used for a meets/touches relation based on three scales: similarity, clarity, and preference (Schwering 2007).…”

What’s (Not) on the Map: Landscape Features from Participatory Sketch Mapping Differ from Local Categories Used in Language

“…However, so far, much attention in the literature has been on using the data acquired through crowd-sourcing in a myriad of ways [67][68][69]. In contrast, more conceptual questions about crowd-sourced geographic data have so far received relatively little scientific attention [66,70,71]. If we want to develop GIS that allow the use and exchange of geographic information across different groups of people, an important step in this direction is to document multiple conceptual ontologies from the bottom up, so that they can be used as the basis for developing maps and GIS that better reflect the diverse ways that people conceptualize the world around them.…”