Environmental Cognition Theme -- Environmental

Environmental Cognition Theme -- Environmental Cognition -- the way humans imagine, create, remember and think about the environment as a whole. The cognitive tools that humans use to understand and move about the earth. Cognitive maps can be landmarks, paths or the capability of understanding the shape and texture of the environment. The term "cognition" refers to a faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences.

Cognition, or cognitive processes, can be natural or artificial, conscious or unconscious These processes are analyzed from different perspectives within different contexts Within psychology or philosophy, the concept of cognition is closely related to abstract concepts such as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe capabilities of the mind and expected properties of an artificial or synthetic "mind" Cognition is considered an abstract property of advanced living organisms and is studied as a direct property of a brain (or of an abstract mind) on at the factual and symbolic levels Proposition -- the Five Cues used in cognitive mapping involve analysis of maps drawn by subjects Five Cues = 1) Landmark -- then organize around this; 2) paths, 3) nodes, 4) Districts, and 5) edges The brain takes the single landmark, then clusters around it to form a picture of the area or building; based on memory and clues Anchor Point Hypothesis -- Subject picks landmark and organizes map around it; moves into clustering as cognitive abilities increase (e.g.

structured center and then adding other cues) All cognitive maps contain errors, but incompleteness is most common; distortion of distance and size also; augmentation least common (something added that does not belong).

Errors are based on known and familiar items and errors on items not noticed or forgotten -- shows what is important to individual (as in driving by a store and not knowing it was there until you needed something from it) Distance judgment is lost over time based on familiarity and memory and is based on how the brain relates the anchor points, the clusters, and the cues -- distances are judged to be shorter within regions defined by larger numbers of clusters The Route Angularity Effect -- the more angles, the more the perception of distance; also called route segmentation because the brain takes each segment, stores it, and adds it; the more complex the angles, the more the brain sees distance Slope -- subjects overestimate travelled distance due to walking uphill or downhill Way finding -- 1) cognitive mapping ability, 2) decision making ability, 3) decision execution that results in behavior -- active rather than passive Way finding indoors -- complex floor plans (e.g.

hospitals, etc.) need signs because there are few waypoints that are familiar; lack of way finding indoors causes stress Way finding for the Blind -- the Blind pay more attention to environmental cues, but otherwise research shows react similarly to the fully sighted You are Here maps -- must be in alignment with building or cognition is worse than having no map at all -- must be aligned pointing north,.