Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Feature accumulation and route structuring in distance estimations — An interdisciplinary approach

  • Cognitive Aspects of Spatial Acquisition
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS (COSIT 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1329))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

It is well-known that route distance estimates are influenced by the structure of the route. In particular, the number of features along the route (e.g. landmarks) and the structuring of the route into stretches have been shown to influence distance estimates, usually increasing them (feature accumulation, route structuring). However, the two effects have not been related to one another yet. What is the relation between them? We have approached this question from two perspectives. The paper describes a cognitive model of route representation and processes, which produces both effects as the outcomes of task-specific retrieval procedures. It also describes an experiment whose results support the hypothesis that route structuring, if induced by segmentation, is a special case of feature accumulation. We relate the empirical results to the model, show how they support and constrain each other, and outline what further research is needed.

The first author'swork was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft through a scholarship in the doctoral program in cognitive science (Graduiertenkolleg Kognitionswissenschaft) and through a project of the priority program on spatial cognition (Raumkognition) (AZ Fr806/8-1).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Allen, G.L. (1981). A developmental perspective on the effects of “subdividing” macrospatial experience. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 7. 120–132.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, G.L. & Kirasic, K.C. (1985). Effects of the cognitive organization of route knowledge on judgments of macrospatial distance. Memory and Cognition, 13. 218–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baddeley, A.D. & Lieberman, K. (1980). Spatial working memory. In R. Nickerson (Ed.), Attention and Performance VIII(pp. 521–539). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berendt, B. (1996). Explaining preferred mental models in Allen inferences with a metrical model of imagery. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. 489-494.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berendt, B. (1997). Modelling subjective distances. In KI'97. Proceedings of the Twenty-first Annual German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Berlin: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clementini, E., Di Felice, P. & Hemández, D. (1995). Qualitative Representation of Positional Information. Report FKI-208-95. Technische Universität München, Institut für Informatik (H2). München, Germany. July 1995. (revised March 1997: http://www7.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/mitarbeiter/danher/node3.html).

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, A.U. (1992). Qualitative Spatial Reasoning about Distances and Directions in Geographic Space. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 3. 343–371.

    Google Scholar 

  • Golledge, R.G., Ruggles, A.J., Pellegrino, J.W. & Gale, N. (1993). Integrating route knowledge in an unfamiliar neighborhood: along and across route experiments. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 13.293–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herrmann, Th., Buhl, H.M. & Schweizer, K. (1995). Zur blickpunktbezogenen Wissensrepräsentation: Der Richtungseffekt. Zeitschr fair Psychologie, 203. 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holyoak, K.J. & Mah, W. A. (1982). Cognitive reference points in judgments of symbolic magnitude. Cognitive Psychology, 14. 328–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansen-Osmann, P. (in prep.) Kognitive Distanzen-Laborexperimentelle Untersuchungen in virtuellen Umgebungen. Ph.D. Thesis, Gerhard-Mercator-Universität Duisburg, Duisburg, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuipers, B.J. (1978). Modeling Spatial Knowledge. Cognitive Science, 2. 129–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logic, R.H. (1995). Visuo-Spatial Working Memory. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNamara, T.P. (1991). Memory's view of space. In G.H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 27, pp. 147-186). New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montello, D.R. (1988). Route information and travel time as bases far the perception and cognition of environmental distance. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montello, D.R. (1993). Scale and multiple psychologies of space. In A. U. Frank & I. Campari (Eds.), Spatial Information Theory: A theoretical basis for GIS (Proceedings COSIT'93) (pp. 312-321). Berlin etc.: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montello, D. (1995). The perception and cognition of environmental distance: Processes and knowledge sources. Unpublished manuscript. University of California at Santa Barbara, Departments of Geography and Psychology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, P. (1996). Representing route networks for some cases of motion description. In ECAI'96: Proceedings of the Workshop on Representations and Processes between Vision and NL (pp. 51–58). Budapest, Hungary.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadalla, E.K. & Magel, S.G. (1980). The Perception of Traversed Distance. Environment and Behavior, 12. 65–79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadalla, E.K. & Staplin, L.J. (1980). An information storage model for distance cognition. Environment and Behavior, 12. 183–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadalla, E.K., Staplin, L.J. & Burroughs, W.J. (1979). Retrieval processes in distance cognition. Memory & Cognition, 7. 291–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiest, WM. & Bell, B. (1985). Steven's Exponent for Psychophysical Scaling of Perceived, Remembered, and Inferred Distance. Psychological Bulletin, 98.457–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmermann, K. (1995). Measuring without measures. The Δ-Calculus In A. U. Frank & W. Kuhn (Eds.), Spatial Information Theory: A theoretical basis for GIS (Proceedings COSIT'95) (pp. 59–67). Berlin etc.: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Hamburg, Vogt-Kö11n-Str. 30, D-22527, Hamburg, Germany

    Bettina Berendo

  2. Department of Psychology, Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg, D147048, Duisburg, Germany

    Petra Jansen-Osmann

Authors
  1. Bettina Berendo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Petra Jansen-Osmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Stephen C. Hirtle Andrew U. Frank

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Berendo, B., Jansen-Osmann, P. (1997). Feature accumulation and route structuring in distance estimations — An interdisciplinary approach. In: Hirtle, S.C., Frank, A.U. (eds) Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS. COSIT 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1329. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63623-4_56

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63623-4_56

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63623-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69616-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation