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To be able to design indoor wayfinding systems that adhere better to the needs of the users, user perception on complexity needs to be examined and linked to user characteristics and decision point characteristics. To identify how these characteristics influence perception, an online survey is executed in which participants had to indicate how complex they found a decision point, while interpreting a route instruction. The results show that complexity ratings depend both on user characteristics and on the function of the decision point. Decision points to change levels, start or end a route and to take turns each received significantly different complexity ratings. Isovist and visibility graph analysis characteristics of these decision points show that the first two actions were perceived as more complex when they took place in a narrow hallway, while the third action was perceived as more complex in a convex space. The results of this study can be used in the design of an adaptive wayfinding system that adapts the route instructions to the perceived decision point complexity. This adaptation will adhere better to the needs of the users compared to an adaptation based on solely theoretical complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a rising awareness about the relevance of spatial ability and integrating spatial information into educational curricula. It is now considered essential to problem-solving and understanding a variety of natural and cultural phenomena. To analyze people's global-scale cognitive map and which factors influence it, a short playful test was developed that allowed participants to estimate the real land area of certain countries, regions, and continents. These estimates are analyzed to define how accurately the size of countries and continents is perceived. The results show that country of residence does not significantly affect people's spatial knowledge. However, gender, migration background, and familiarity with maps have a significant impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of a crowdsourced indoor navigation system named SoleWay. Because the input of volunteers is crucial, special attention was paid to the usability of the system at different stages throughout its development. Besides a user-friendly system, this has resulted in a number of important insights that can facilitate the development of future systems: the importance social motivation of potential users, integration of a stepwise approach (with a gradual release and subsequent user evaluations), and adaptation to user requirements. These elements combined are also crucial to be able to obtain a critical crowd that can sustain a viable content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores map users' cognitive processes in learning, acquiring and remembering information presented via screen maps. In this context, we conducted a mixed-methods user experiment employing digital sketch maps and eye tracking. On the one hand, the performance of the participants was assessed based on the order with which the objects were drawn and the influence of visual variables (e.g. presence & location, size, shape, color). On the other hand, trial durations and eye tracking statistics such as average duration of fixations, and number of fixations per seconds were compared. Moreover, selected AoIs (Area of Interests) were explored to gain a deeper insight on visual behavior of map users. Depending on the normality of the data, we used either two-way ANOVA or Mann-Whitney U test to inspect the significance of the results. Based on the evaluation of the drawing order, we observed that experts and males drew roads first whereas; novices and females focused more on hydrographic object. According to the assessment of drawn elements, no significant differences emerged between neither experts and novices, nor females and males for the retrieval of spatial information presented on 2D maps with a simple design and content. The differences in trial durations between novices and experts were not statistically significant while both studying and drawing. Similarly, no significant difference occurred between female and male participants for either studying or drawing. Eye tracking metrics also supported these findings. For average duration of fixation, there was found no significant difference between experts and novices, as well as between females and males. Similarly, no significant differences were found for the mean number of fixation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on the use of crowdsourcing to create optimal cycling routes on recreational paths. Topics include the use of user-generated content related to the modeling of leisure activities, the use of global positioning system (GPS) data from cyclists in Belgium, and path generation in relation to spatial data.

The general aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of panning on the map user’s (attentive) behaviour, using a mixed methods approach. A user study was conducted in which participants – with an expertise in cartography – had to execute four tasks in Google Maps, using only a panning operation. During the first two tasks, participants had to follow a predefined route; during the latter two tasks they had to locate Belgium on a less detailed scale level. A strong task-related interactive behaviour was revealed by the participants’ mouse action and eye movements. Furthermore, the attentive behaviour was influenced by the type of view (map or satellite) and whether it occurs while performing the panning operation. The georeferenced eye movements were imported in a GIS for spatial analysis. Based on these spatial queries, we discovered that the duration of the fixations was associated by their location on the map. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analyze if the visual exploration of landscape photographs is influenced by the urbanization level of the landscape and whether this is correlated with visual landscape complexity. We determine if differences in viewing behavior are related to differences in complexity, expressed by the photograph's spectral entropy. An eye-tracking experiment is conducted to measure visual behavior while observing the photographs. A more extensive and dispersed exploration is found in more urbanized landscapes. The fixation pattern is more restricted and clustered in weakly urbanized landscapes. When buildings are lacking, this trend cannot be extrapolated since these landscapes seem to elicit an unexpectedly extensive exploration. The urbanization level is positively correlated with the visual complexity, indicating its potential influence on the viewing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This map summarizes the relative change in activity at 379 airports during the tumultuous economic period that lasted from 2003 to 2013 in the conterminous USA. Rather than treating airports only as individual nodes, the work identifies relative regional spatial change in airport activity based upon the combination of the percentage changes in three factors: departures, passenger levels, and available seats. The geographic results, calculated by kriging, show that the outcome over the period is not spatially uniform. In particular, the map shows that parts of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and the Intermountain West fared relatively worse while the plains and coasts did somewhat better. The analysis expresses the fact that while footloose in the short-run, long-term adjustments in the airline industry, like those experienced across 2003–2013, did so in a spatially coherent way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

User evaluations of interactive and dynamic applications face various challenges related to the active nature of these displays. For example, users can often zoom and pan on digital products, and these interactions cause changes in the extent and/or level of detail of the stimulus. Therefore, in eye tracking studies, when a user's gaze is at a particular screen position (gaze position) over a period of time, the information contained in this particular position may have changed. Such digital activities are commonplace in modern life, yet it has been difficult to automatically compare the changing information at the viewed position, especially across many participants. Existing solutions typically involve tedious and time-consuming manual work. In this article, we propose a methodology that can overcome this problem. By combining eye tracking with user logging (mouse and keyboard actions) with cartographic products, we are able to accurately reference screen coordinates to geographic coordinates. This referencing approach allows researchers to know which geographic object (location or attribute) corresponds to the gaze coordinates at all times. We tested the proposed approach through two case studies, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the applied methodology. Furthermore, the applicability of the proposed approach is discussed with respect to other fields of research that use eye tracking-namely, marketing, sports and movement sciences, and experimental psychology. From these case studies and discussions, we conclude that combining eye tracking and user-logging data is an essential step forward in efficiently studying user behavior with interactive and static stimuli in multiple research fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this research is to investigate the influence of a map's background colour on user preferences regarding labels' typography, including their size, shape, orientation and texture. Four sets of backgrounds were tested: blank maps, grey scale, hot colours and cold colours. The foreground of these maps is populated with name labels, which are associated with point objects or areal objects. Bertin's visual variables were applied to this set of name labels, both separately and in combination. User preferences of different typographic variations were registered and compared on the basis of different background colours using a one-way ANOVA. The results indicated that the typographic design of the map labels should not be adapted according to the map's background colour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labels are indispensable visual (communication) elements that completely deliver the geospatial message of maps. The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of complementary colors between the map's background and text on the readability of cartographic texts and thus on the efficiency of the map user's search task. This is compared with the use of the 'traditional' black labels on the corresponding colored backgrounds. Furthermore, a number of user characteristics, such as gender and expertise, are taken into account as well. The users' eye movements were registered to study their attentive behavior during the visual search task. In addition to the complement of the color's hue, the analyses were based on the difference in luminance, which could also affect the labels' readability. The difference between the black and colored label design was significantly different versus the eye-tracking metrics. A correlation was found between the color difference and reaction time measurement and between the luminance difference and fixation duration. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 437-445, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to extend current research regarding map users' cognitive processes while working with screen maps. The described experiment investigates how (expert and novice) map users retrieve information from memory that was previously gathered from screen maps. A user study was conducted in which participants had to draw a map from memory. During this task, they were instructed to say out loud every thought that came into mind. Both user groups addressed the same general cognitive structures and processes to solve the task at hand. However, the experts' background knowledge facilitated the retrieval process and allowed them to derive extra information through deductive reasoning. The novices used more descriptive terms instead of naming the objects and could remember less, and less detailed map elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last couple of years, applications that support wayfinding in indoor spaces have become a booming industry. Finding one's way in complex 3D indoor environments can still be a challenging endeavor, partly induced by the specific indoor structure (e.g. fragmentation, less visibility, confined areas). Appropriate algorithms that help guide unfamiliar users by providing ‘easier to follow’ route instructions are so far mostly absent indoors. In outdoor space, several alternative algorithms exist, adding a more cognitive notion to the calculated paths and as such adhering to the natural wayfinding behavior (e.g. simplest paths, least risk paths). The aim of this research is to extend those richer cognitive algorithms to three-dimensional indoor environments. More specifically, the focal point of this paper is the application of the least risk path algorithm, i.e. an algorithm developed to minimize the risk of getting lost, to an indoor space. This algorithm is duplicated and extensively tested in a complex multi-story building by comparing the quality of the calculated least risk paths with their shortest path alternatives. The outcome of those tests reveals non-stable results in terms of selecting the least risky edges in indoor environments, which leads to the conclusion that the algorithm has to be adjusted to the specificities of indoor space. Several improvements for the algorithm are proposed and will be implemented as part of future work to improve the overall user experience during navigation in indoor environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the efficiency of label placement algorithms has been studied extensively, few studies considered the influence of the label designs on the efficiency of map readers. Labels are one of the most important elements on the map as they can provide more information than other symbols can. The design of the labels does have to stress the theme, shape and functionality of the associated objects, which results in a more efficient interpretation of the map content by the user. How the label designs can enhance the map readers' efficiency (and thus the quality of the maps themselves) is the main objective of this study. A user study was conducted in which the participants were asked to locate a target label on a map. Different label designs were implemented across the trials. The participants' reactions times were registered to measure their efficiency and statistically analysed using a one-way ANOVA. Two different users' characteristics were considered: gender and expertise. Related to the size, shape, orientation and texture of the labels, a number of significant differences (P<0·05) and trends were located. Differences in efficiency between males and females, on the one hand, and between novices and experts, on the other hand, were also described statistically. Consequently, recommendations can be formulated regarding the design of labels in order to obtain more efficient maps, keeping in mind the map users' characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiments described in this article combine response time measurements and eye movement data to gain insight into the users' cognitive processes while working with dynamic and interactive maps. Experts and novices participated in a user study with a ‘between user’ design. Twenty screen maps were presented in a random order to each participant, on which he had to execute a visual search. The combined information of the button actions and eye tracker reveals that both user groups showed a similar pattern in the time intervals needed to locate the subsequent names. From this pattern, information about the users' cognitive load could be derived: use of working memory, learning effect and so on. Moreover, the response times also showed that experts were significantly faster in finding the names in the map image. This is further explained by the eye movement metrics: experts had significantly shorter fixations and more fixations per second meaning that they could interpret a larger part of the map in the same amount of time. As a consequence, they could locate objects in the map image more efficiently and thus faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of dynamic and interactive maps in relation to the user. A label placement method with an improved algorithmic efficiency is presented. Since this algorithm has an influence on the actual placement of the name labels on the map, it is tested if this efficient algorithms also creates more effective maps: how well is the information processed by the user. We tested 30 participants while they were working on a dynamic and interactive map display. Their task was to locate geographical names on each of the presented maps. Their eye movements were registered together with the time at which a given label was found. The gathered data reveal no difference in the user's response times, neither in the number and the duration of the fixations between both map designs. The results of this study show that the efficiency of label placement algorithms can be improved without disturbing the user's cognitive map. Consequently, we created a more efficient map without affecting its effectiveness towards the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every route instruction type (e.g. map, symbol, photo) induces a specific cognitive load. However, when these types are used at different decision points in a building, the building configuration of these points also influences the induced cognitive load. Therefore, the process of route guidance results in an interaction between the instruction type and the decision point, which determines the induced cognitive load. One way of reducing cognitive load during route guidance is by using adaptive systems that show specific route instruction types at specific decision points. Therefore, in this VR experiment, the usability of such an adaptive indoor route guidance system is tested by tracking the wayfinding and gaze behavior of the users. First, the difference in wayfinding and gaze behavior between all route instruction types is compared. Next, the building configuration at the decision points is quantified through the architectural theory of space syntax, and the correlation with the wayfinding and gaze behavior is determined. Our findings indicate that adapting the route instruction type does make a difference for the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Conventional analyses on eye movement data only take into account eye movement metrics, such as the number or the duration of fixations and length of the scanpaths, on which statistical analysis is performed for detecting significant differences. However, the spatial dimension in the eye movements is neglected, which is an essential element when investigating the design of maps. The study described in this paper uses a visual analytics software package, the Visual Analytics Toolkit, to analyse the eye movement data. Selection, simplification and aggregation functions are applied to filter out meaningful subsets of the data to be able to recognise structures in the movement data. Visualising and analysing these patterns provides essential insights in the user’s search strategies while working on a (n interactive) map. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Wayfinding in the indoor environment is challenging and people often get lost indoors. Navigation systems guide people in these environments, however, the existing systems are not well adapted to their users. The focus of our research is on the route planning aspect of navigation systems. By adapting the routes that people are guided along in the environment, our goal is to substantially improve the wayfinding experience for the users of those systems. Guiding people along routes that adhere better to their cognitive processes could ease the wayfinder in the indoor environment. To select the aspects that should be implemented in a routing algorithm that calculates such routes, a mixed method approach was applied. In this approach, the results of an exploratory focus group and a complementary online survey were combined. To validate these results, a real-life experiment is being developed at the time of writing. Our first study, the exploratory focus group, comprised academic researchers and experts with different background (i.e. Psychology, Geography and Architectural Design). The discussions were guided by a rotating wheel according to the GPS-method which was developed by the Flanders District of Creativity. These discussions provided a broad overview of the elements to be regarded when studying wayfinding. Moreover, results indicate that route complexity has to be considered at different levels: local level (i.e. at decision points) and global level (i.e. legibility of the building). Based on the results of the focus group, multiple situations with specific local characteristics likely inducing confusion and discomfort (e.g. specific intersections, different stair cases, different door types) were selected to elaborate more deeply in the complementary online survey. In this survey, videos of these situations were shown to the participants, as if they were navigating through the building. They were asked to rank their comfort and confusion level about the recorded situation on a 5-point Likert-scale. The results show that visibility, visual clutter and geometric simplicity are of substantial importance when evaluating comfort and confusion levels, and thus the complexity of indoor navigation situations. Since body-movement and the real-world perceptions, which have a substantial impact on information processing and spatial decision making [1], are excluded in these well-controlled lab environments of the previous studies, a real-life experiment will be executed to validate previous findings. The developed study design is in line with the experiment design of previous wayfinding studies [2], [3]. Eye tracking data of participants guided through different complex buildings along different paths (i.e. shortest path and fewest turn path) will be recorded. Performance measures (e.g. duration, stops, errors), eye tracking measures (e.g. fixation number, fixating duration) and annotations of the accompanying researcher, which are all measures indicating complexity and cognitive load, will be compared across the different paths and its decision points. This analysis will allow us to determine complex routes and to identify the environmental characteristics increasing the perceived complexity. Moreover, it will lead to an understanding how and in which occasions people make wayfinding errors. In a subsequent phase of our research project, these results will be incorporated in a cognitively-sounding route planning algorithm which could be a valuable improvement of indoor navigation support. Focus will be on the theoretical interpretation of the underlying spatial concepts. Adjusting the route planning support of indoor navigation systems to human wayfinding behavior could be a substantial contribution in this area. [1] S. Schwarzkopf and R. Von Stülpnagel, "What Lab Eye Tracking Tells us about Wayfinding A Comparison of Stationary and Mobile Eye Tracking in a Large Building Scenario," in Eye Tracking for Spatial Research, Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop (in conjunction with COSIT 2013), 2013, no. February, pp. 31-36. [2] C. Hölscher, T. Meilinger, G. Vrachliotis, M. Brösamle, and M. Knauff, "Finding the way inside: Linking architectural design analysis and cognitive processes," in Spatial Cognition IV. Reasoning, Action, Interaction, 2005, vol. 3343, pp. 1-12. [3] C. Hölscher, S. J. Büchner, T. Meilinger, and G. Strube, "Adaptivity of wayfinding strategies in a multi-building ensemble: The effects of spatial structure, task requirements, and metric information," J. Environ. Psychol., vol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive maps are defined as internal representations of the environment or of the globe. Several scientists of various disciplines (e.g. psychology, geography) have conducted cognitive research on issues related to maps aiming to understand how humans create and utilize mental representations of the earth. Concluding that several elements, such as wayfinding tasks, verbal explanations or maps contribute to the creation of these representations. Moreover, map projections of world maps and their distortions are presumed as a crucial factor when creating our global-scale cognitive map. Nevertheless, previous research (of Battersby and Montello in 2006 at University of Santa Barbara and Lapon in 2017 at Ghent University) could not provide any proof for the existence of an influence of map projections on our globalscale cognitive map. To go deeper into this topic, we want to research any other possible influence on our cognitive map. For example, does the place where you were educated or the place where you live and work has an impact on the development of your mental map? Are these influences defined by the age, the gender or the educational level of people? There are several measures to define the accuracy of our cognitive map: e.g. the distances between places or cities; the topologic relations between places, countries or other geographical elements; the land areas of countries and continents. The test developed for this research focussed on the latter one: participants are requested to estimate the size of one country or continent compared to another one (Figure 1). Therefore, an interactive playful online test was developed. The test is available in eight languages and consists of an instructive movie, ten pairs of countries or continents to estimate, a survey and a feedback tool which gives a score. This setup permits to collect data for our research, but it is also developed as a tool to create awareness about our misperception of region sizes among the participants. Furthermore, the test can easily be used in the classroom to introduce subjects such as map projections, cartography, world problems... By using personal contacts, mailing lists of the university, and social media, 100,000 fully completed tests were collected in two months' time, from more than 150 different countries worldwide. For every estimation the relative estimated accuracy is calculated, this value gives an impression to what extent people over- or underestimate one region compared to another. Its absolute value is an indication of how good people are in estimating the real size of countries or continents. These values were used to calculate differences between the participants, and between groups of participants. Besides their gender, age, profession, educational level and cartographical background, people were asked to define the country where they received their education and the country where they are living now. Nine countries, with more than 400 participants, spread over the globe, were selected for further analyses. The preliminary results show that there is a low variation between the averages for each country of education or place of living separately. So, it seems that the ability to estimate the size of countries or continents is not determined by the place where one lives or received one's education. In contrast, personal characteristics are more defining for the accuracy of the estimations. General results indicate that on the one side men achieve a better score than women, and on the other side young people between 12 and 18 years old perform quite better, in contrast with the participants older than 71 years. Also, the people with a higher educational level or a broader cartographical background perform better. The place where you grow up, get educated or where you live, does not have a substantial influence on the accuracy of the estimations. Surprisingly, personal characteristics and qualities seem to play a more determining role, worldwide, in the development of geographical knowledge or more specific, in the evolvement of the cognitive map. To support these preliminary results, the analyses will be extended and the group of participants further delimited. Furthermore, a geographical dataset with more than 100,000 participants offers plenty of possibilities that will be exploited in the upcoming months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the design of a cartographic user experiment that employs both eye tracking (ET) and electroencephalogram (EEG). When creating such an experiment, one is confronted with a large number of (often conflicting) challenges which need to be resolved: quality of the recorded signals, design of appropriate stimuli and tasks, synchronization of the data, etc. The goal of the experiment is to explore the (cognitive) strategies of expert and novice map users through cognitive load measurements when they are asked to memorize and then remember a (part of) map content with varying levels of complexity. Because the procedure of memorizing a map content in order to retrieve it stimulates the cognitive map production in map users' brains and hence it causes a cognitive load which can be measured with ET and EEG techniques. Throughout the paper, we will address the design issues by emphasizing the content of the stimuli and task, procedures of how the experiment will be executed and psychological measures to indicate cognitive load. For this, we combined a within and between subjects design: two different groups of participants studied different groups of stimuli (with varying levels of complexity). In order to organize this in a structured way, the experiment is composed of seven blocks containing 50 trials. These blocks are shown in a random order. Each block is related to a certain level of complexity, represented by a (group of) map feature classes that should be remembered: (i) the whole sketch map, (ii) roads and hydrography, (iii) roads and green areas, (iv) green areas and hydrography, (v) green areas, (vi) hydrography, or (vii) roads. As such the cognitive load demand of tasks in each block is different, because each block is dedicated to the retrieval of a different map feature class or a combination of classes. Each trial in the experiment is composed out of two parts. First, a map stimulus to study, which is derived from Google maps at zoom level 15 with 1 km scale bar, is shown for seven seconds long (Figure 1). This zoom level was chosen considering the size of the display screen and the consistency of the cartographic generalization for this level of detail among all the stimuli included in the experiment. This part corresponds to a free-viewing condition in which participants were asked to study a map stimulus, focusing on certain main structuring elements of the map. Second, a response screen appeared (Figure 2) with four graphical response panel: sketch maps which reflects the map content relevant to the task and are prepared by digitizing the main structuring elements considering cartographic generalization principles. Only one of the options corresponds to the map stimulus that was shown. Participants were required to keep the correct answers in their memory (a, b, c, d) and indicate it in the next screen. We recorded EEG and ET simultaneously throughout the experiment. Typically, a high number of trials is included in an EEG experiment to be able to filter out the noise in the EEG data because besides brain-related activity, EEG data consists of noise elicited from different external sources (e.g. muscle or blink artifacts, power line noise generated by electrical devices in the room). When the number of trials are increased, the chances of obtaining artifact-free trials are higher. It is important to decide which ET and EEG metrics can be used to calculate the cognitive load. On the one hand, the cognitive load can be measured using EEG activity power spectrum. For instance, spectral power change across frontal and temporal channel locations under alpha frequency band is a good indicator of cognitive load. Therefore, we can average the alpha power (8-13 Hz) for 7 seconds-long EEG recordings (i.e. same as the duration of the stimulus on the screen) of all 50 trials for each block. Average alpha power can be computed for expert and novices groups separately to study the differences between them and also based on blocks to study the influence of cognitive load into recalling performance. On the other hand, ET data can be used to identify blinks, fixations and saccades within the EEG data for noise reduction. After preprocessing, eye metrics such as number of fixations and fixation durations for each trial can be calculated and correlated to EEG data for overall cognitive load estimation. In short, this experiment design allows us to examine how cognitive load affects the recalling performance, and whether some features are recalled independently of task difficulty. If so, we can identify which features are recalled easily/primarily, especially when the task demands higher cognitive load. Therefore, this outcome can contribute to create cartographic products in a more effective way by indicating the potential benefits of implementing EEG in cartographic usability research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoors, navigation aids are widely used. Indoors, on the other hand, these systems are not yet common practice, because it requires another more elaborate positioning method and the environments are more complex. Especially in complex buildings, wayfinding can be challenging and induce a rise in cognitive load. To reduce cognitive load, indoor wayfinding aids have to be adapted to both the architecture of the building and the requirements of the users. To facilitate this adaptation, first of all, the complexity of a building has to be quantified. Several methodologies are developed to this end and some of them have been proven to correlate well with wayfinding strategies of navigators, such as isovists and the space syntax theory. An isovist is the area in space which can be seen from a certain viewpoint. This isovist area can be drawn on a floorplan of a building, resulting in a polygon with several geometric properties (e.g. surface area, longest line of sight, compactness) that can be used to quantify the complexity in a certain point of a building. Rather than focussing on separate elements of space, the space syntax theory analyses how spaces relate to each other. The visibility graph analysis (VGA) combines both methodologies by putting a grid on the floorplan and drawing an isovist in every point of the grid. From all these points, measures such as the mean visual depth can be calculated, which quantify the integration of the points in the global building structure. Measures of isovists and VGA are often used in literature to link spatio-visual properties of buildings (e.g. museums and shopping centers) to exploratory movements of visitors. The architectural layout of a building has a significant impact on the cognitive load during navigation, but the demanded effort also depends on people's environmental perception. One of the factors that shape this perception are personal characteristics such as cultural background, familiarity and navigation capabilities. The quantification of decision point visibility with isovist measures or VGA on the one hand and the navigator's perception of the same decision point on the other hand are not necessarily equivalent. However, both have an influence on indoor movement and therefore, both should be included in a framework for an adaptive wayfinding aid. This adaptation can be implemented in several components of a wayfinding system (e.g. the route planning by generating the least turn path instead of the shortest path). However, the route instructions convey the spatial information and are therefore the key to successful navigation. Adequate communication can accelerate the process of wayfinding and avoid uncertainties of the user. Moreover, the chosen presentation form of the instruction is decisive for the usability of the navigation system. A distinction can be made between maps and turn-by-turn instructions. Maps give a survey perspective of the environment by displaying the complete floorplan. That way, navigators can improve their cognitive map of the environment. However, most users of wayfinding aids in complex buildings have no interest in improving their mental map and prefer a maximum ease of wayfinding. Alternatively, turn-by-turn instructions can be given at every decision point in many forms (e.g. symbols, text, map, photo, 3D simulations). The current studies on route communication are limited to one type per route. However, because every decision point is different, the induced cognitive load is also different at these points. Therefore, route communication should be adapted at decision point level. To be able to make an adaptive wayfinding system an online survey is executed to determine the best type of route instruction for every decision point (Figure 1). The case study building of the online survey is the iGent tower, a recently built (2015) office building in Ghent (Belgium). The architects designed the tower as a smart building (with several location sensors implemented in the ceiling), hence, it is well equipped for the development of a wayfinding system. During the survey, participants are guided along ten routes, based on video materials. For every new route, a different type of route instruction is shown whereby the order of both the routes and the types is randomised. At every decision point along the ten routes (52 in total) participants indicated how complex they found that decision point and how good they found that instruction type. The answers to the first question are compared to six isovist measures and one VGA measure (calculated with Isovists.org). The preliminary results indicate that several measures are correlated with the complexity ratings of the participants. However, a factor with a larger influence on the complexity ratings is the action participants had to take (e.g. go straight forward, turn left, change floors). Therefore, the complexity of a decision point depends both on the architecture and on the type of action navigators have to take. It can be concluded that both aspects should be considered in the instruction type selection of an adaptive wayfinding system. This conclusion is confirmed by the instruction type ratings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this research is to explore the cognitive processes of expert and novice map users during the retrieval of map-related information, within varying difficulty levels (i.e., easy, moderate, hard), by using eye tracking and electroencephalogram (EEG). In this context, we present a spatial memory experiment consisting of a large number of stimuli to study the effect of task difficulty on map users' behavior through cognitive load measurements. Next to the reaction time and success rate, we used fixation and saccade related eye tracking metrics (i.e., average fixation duration, the number of fixations per second, saccade amplitude and saccade velocity), and EEG power spectrum (i.e., event-related changes in alpha and theta frequency bands) to identify the cognitive load. While fixation metrics indicated no statistically significant difference between experts and novices, saccade metrics proved the otherwise. EEG power spectral density analysis, on the other side, suggested an increase in theta (i.e., event-related synchronization) and a decrease in alpha (except moderate tasks) (i.e., event-related desynchronization) at all difficulty levels of the task for both experts and novices, which is an indicator of cognitive load. Although no significant difference emerged between two groups, we found a significant difference in their overall performances when the participants were classified as good and relatively bad learners. Triangulating EEG results with the recorded eye tracking data and the qualitative analysis of focus maps indeed provided a detailed insight on the differences of the individuals' cognitive processes during this spatial memory task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As indoor wayfinding can be very challenging, adapted systems, which adapt the route instruction type, are being developed to facilitate more supportive indoor route guidance. In this study, such a system has been developed based on the results of an online survey. This adapted system was compared with a non-adapted system by use of eye tracking, position tracking, an orientation test and a questionnaire. The results revealed that using symbols instead of photos reduced the imposed cognitive load, while using 3D-simulations instead of photos improved the environmental awareness. This resulted in less wayfinding errors with the adapted system, compared to the non-adapted system. Therefore, the present study provides additional evidence on the benefits of adapted systems for indoor route guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Map projections are required to represent the globe on a flat surface, which always results in distorted representations of the globe. Accordingly, the world maps we observe in daily life contexts, such as on news sites, in news bulletins, on social media, in educational textbooks or atlases, are distorted images of the world. The question raises if regular contact with those representations of the world deforms people's global-scale cognitive map. To analyze people's global-scale cognitive map and if it is influenced by map projections, a short playful test was developed that allowed participants to estimate the real land area of certain regions, countries, and continents. More than 130,000 people worldwide participated. This worldwide dataset was used to perform statistical analyses in order to obtain information on the extent that map projections influence the accuracy of people's global-scale cognitive map. The results indicate that the accuracy differs with the map projection but not to the extent that one's global-scale cognitive map is a reflection of a particular map projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to evaluate the use of ET and EEG for studying the cognitive processes of expert and novice map users and to explore these processes by comparing two types of spatial memory experiments through cognitive load measurements. The first experiment consisted of single trials and participants were instructed to study a map stimulus without any time constraints in order to draw a sketch map afterwards. According to the ET metrics (i.e., average fixation duration and the number of fixations per second), no statistically significant differences emerged between experts and novices. A similar result was also obtained with EEG Frontal Alpha Asymmetry calculations. On the contrary, in terms of alpha power across all electrodes, novices exhibited significantly lower alpha power, indicating a higher cognitive load. In the second experiment, a larger number of stimuli were used to study the effect of task difficulty. The same ET metrics used in the first experiment indicated that the difference between these user groups was not statistically significant. The cognitive load was also extracted using EEG event-related spectral power changes at alpha and theta frequency bands. Preliminary data exploration mostly suggested an increase in theta power and a decrease in alpha power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive mobile wayfinding systems are being developed to ease wayfinding in the indoor environment. They present wayfinding information to the user, which is adapted to the context. Wayfinding information can be communicated by using different types of route instructions, such as text, photos, videos, symbols or a combination thereof. The need for a different type of route instruction may vary at decision points, for example because of its complexity. Furthermore, these needs may be different for different user characteristics (e.g., age, gender, level of education). To determine this need for information, an online survey has been executed where participants rated 10 different route instruction types at several decision points in a case study building. Results show that the types with additional text were preferred over those without text. The photo instructions, combined with text, generally received the highest ratings, especially from first-time visitors. 3D simulations were appreciated at complex decision points and by younger people. When text (with symbols) is considered as a route instruction type, it is best used for the start or end instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The map presented in this paper summarises the combined land- and airside accessibility within Australia. To this end, we calculate a bimodal accessibility index at the scale of statistical units by aggregating the (shortest) travel time for three route segments: (1) road travel from the origin to a departure airport, (2) air travel, and (3) road travel from an arrival airport to the destination. The average travel time from a statistical unit to all other statistical units is calculated for the units' population centroids, after which an accessibility surface is interpolated using kriging. The map shows that southeastern Australia is generally characterised by a high accessibility index with the most populated cities being hotspots of accessibility. Central and northern Australia are – with few exceptions – far less accessible. In addition to this largely-expected pattern, the map also reveals a number of specific and perhaps more surprising geographical patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to investigate how efficiently and effectively collapsed buildings – due to the occurrence of a disaster – can be localized by a general crowd. Two types of visualization parameters are evaluated in an online user study: (1) greyscale images (indicating height information) versus true colours; (2) variation in the vertical viewing angle (0°, 30° and 60°). Additionally, the influence of map use expertise on how the visualizations are interpreted, is investigated. The results indicate that the use of the greyscale image helps to locate collapsed buildings in an efficient and effective manner. The use of the viewing angle of 60° is the least appropriate. A person with a map use expertise will prefer the greyscale image over the colour image. To confirm the benefits of the use of three-dimensional visualizations and the use of the colour image, more research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors influence the global-scale cognitive map. The use of school books, atlases and web maps all play an essential role in the development of geographical knowledge of adolescents. This research examines the impact of the educational system versus web maps on the adolescents' mental map. Through a specially designed web application, university students and secondary school pupils estimated the real proportion of countries and continents compared to Europe. Participants with a more theoretical background or wider knowledge about map projections and its distortions estimated the real proportions more accurately. This research also found that the Robinson projection, commonly used in schoolbooks and atlases, is the best-known map projection among adolescents. However, the influence of web maps could not be proven since no Mercator effect was found. Education is of undeniable importance, and therefore, educational materials that encourage people to look more carefully and critically at maps should be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present-day indoor navigation systems are often not well adapted to the specific needs and requirements of its users. This research aims at improving those indoor navigation systems by providing navigation support that cognitively closer to user preferences and behaviour. More specifically, the focus is on the implementation of an accurate turn calculation method in a turn minimization algorithm, aiming to lower the complexity of routes and route instructions. This new-introduced perception-based turn calculation procedure is based on a direct door-to-door walking pattern, and, in contrast to previous algorithms, independent of the underlying indoor network type. It takes into account the effects of geometry of indoor space on human movement. To evaluate its functioning, both the traditional algorithm and the proposed perception-based algorithm are applied in the fewest turns path algorithm. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm accurately calculates turns in alignment with people's perception. The implementation of the calculation algorithm in the fewest turns path algorithm also allows future applications in indoor simplest path algorithms, and overall contributes to cognitively richer indoor navigation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of mobile pedestrian wayfinding applications is gaining importance indoors. However, compared to outdoors, much less research has been conducted with respect to the most adequate ways to convey indoor wayfinding information to a user. An explorative study was conducted to compare two pedestrian indoor wayfinding applications, one text-based (Sole- Way) and one image-based (Eyedog), in terms of mental effort. To do this, eye tracking data and mental effort ratings were collected from 29 participants during two routes in an indoor environment. The results show that both textual instructions and photographs can enable a navigator to find his/her way while experiencing no or very little cognitive effort or difficulties. However, these instructions must be in line with a user's expectations of the route, which are based on his/her interpretation of the indoor environment at decision points. In this case, textual instructions offer the advantage that specific information can be explicitly and concisely shared with the user. Furthermore, the study drew attention to potential usability issues of the wayfinding aids (e.g. the incentive to swipe) and, as such, demonstrated the value of eye tracking and mental effort assessments in usability research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor navigation systems are not well adapted to the needs of their users. The route planning algorithms implemented in these systems are usually limited to shortest path calculations or derivatives, minimalizing Euclidian distance. Guiding people along routes that adhere better to their cognitive processes could ease wayfinding in indoor environments. This paper examines comfort and confusion perception during wayfinding by applying a mixed-method approach. The aforementioned method combined an exploratory focus group and a video-based online survey. From the discussions in the focus group, it could be concluded that indoor wayfinding must be considered at different levels: the local level and the global level. In the online survey, the focus was limited to the local level, i.e., local environmental characteristics. In this online study, the comfort and confusion ratings of multiple indoor navigation situations were analyzed. In general, the results indicate that open spaces and stairs need to be taken into account in the development of a more cognitively-sounding route planning algorithm. Implementing the results in a route planning algorithm could be a valuable improvement of indoor navigation support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, cartographers and cognitive scientists have speculated about the influence of map projections on mental representations of the world. The development of Web 2.0 and web mapping services at the beginning of the 21st century—such as Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and Baidu Map—led to an enormous spread of cartographic data, which is available to every Internet user. Nevertheless, the cartographic properties of these map services, and, in particular, the selected map projection or the Web Mercator projection, are questionable. The goal of this study is to investigate if the global-scale mental map of young people has been influenced by the increasing availability of web maps and the Web Mercator projection. An application was developed that allowed participants of Belgium and the US to scale the land area of certain countries and continents compared to Europe or the conterminous United States. The results show that the participants' estimation of the actual land area is quite accurate. Moreover, an indication of the existence of a Mercator effect could not be discovered. To conclude, the young people's mental map of the world does not appear to be influenced by a specific map projection but by personal characteristics. These elements are varied and require further analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]