Representing Space in Cognition

Interrelations of behaviour, language, and formal models

Edited by Thora Tenbrink, Jan M. Wiener, and Christophe Claramunt

Explorations in Language and Space

Accessible to students and researchers from diverse backgrounds
Makes a clear connection between language and computational representations in the modelling of space
Represents and supports the development of assistance systems for everyday challenges
Includes scholars and researchers from around the world

Representing Space in Cognition

Interrelations of behaviour, language, and formal models

Edited by Thora Tenbrink, Jan M. Wiener, and Christophe Claramunt

Explorations in Language and Space

Description

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.

Representing Space in Cognition

Interrelations of behaviour, language, and formal models

Edited by Thora Tenbrink, Jan M. Wiener, and Christophe Claramunt

Explorations in Language and Space

1. Introduction, Thora Tenbrink, Jan Wiener, and Christophe Claramunt
Part I: Empirical Insights
2. Describing the Way Out of a Cornfield: Understanding congitive underpinnings of comprehending survey and route descriptions, Holly Taylor and Tad T. Brunye
3. Spatial Representations for Described and Perceived Locations, Marios Avraamides, Catherine Mello, and Nathan Greenauer
4. The Processing of Landmarks in Route Directions, Michel Denis and Gilles Fernandez
Part II: Computational Models
5. Selection of Reference Objectives for Locative Expressions: The importance of knowledge and perception, Michael Barclay and Antony Galton
6. Spatial prototypes, Eric Chown
7. Learning to Interpret Spatial Natural Language in Terms of Qualitative Spatial Relations, Parisa Kordjamshidi, Joana Hois, Martijn van Otterlo, and Marie-Francine Moens
Part III: Intuitive Assistance
8. Cognitive Operations in Tour Planning, Inessa Seifert and Thora Tenbrink
9. Navigation Assistance for Blind Pedestrians: Guidelines for the design of devices and implications for spatial cognition, mathieu Gallay, Michel Denis, and Malika Auvray
10. A Computational Model of Cooperative Spatial Behaviour for Virtual Humans, Nhung Nguyen and Ipke Wachsmuth
11. The 'Space' in Spatial Assistance Systems: Conception, formalisation, and computation, Mehul Bhatt, Carl Schultz, and Christian Freksa

Representing Space in Cognition

Interrelations of behaviour, language, and formal models

Edited by Thora Tenbrink, Jan M. Wiener, and Christophe Claramunt

Explorations in Language and Space

Author Information

Thora Tenbrink, Lecturer in Cognitive Linguistics, Bangor University,Jan M. Wiener, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Bournemouth,Christophe Claramunt, Chair of the Naval Academy Research Institute, France

Thora Tenbrink is a Lecturer in Cognitive Linguistics at Bangor University (Wales, UK). She worked for ten years as a research scientist at the Faculty of Linguistics at Bremen University (Germany), and is a principal investigator in two projects in the Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition (Bremen/Freiburg). Her main interest concerns the relationship between cognitive processes and linguistic representations. She is the author of Space, Time, and the Use of Language (Mouton de Gruyter, 2007), and editor, with Kenny Coventry and John Bateman, of Spatial Language and Dialogue (OUP, 2009).

Jan Wiener is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Bournemouth (UK). Previously he has worked as a research scientist at the University of Freiburg (Germany), the CNRS (Paris, France), and the Max-Planck-Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Tubingen, Germany). His research focuses primarily on the cognitive processes and strategies that underly navigation and wayfinding behaviour.

Christophe Claramunt is a Professor in Computer Science and Chair of the Naval Academy Research Institute in France. He was previously a Senior Lecturer in Computing at the Nottingham Trent University and a Senior Researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University de Bourgogne in France. His main research interests concern theoretical and multi-disciplinary aspects of geographical information science, including spatio-temporal and computational models, alternative models of space, semantic GIS, integration of GIS and simulation systems, and the spatial Web.

Contributors:

Malika Auvray, LIMSI-CNRS, France
Marios Avraamides, University of Cyprus
Michael Barclay, Life Inside Ltd
Mehul Bhatt, University of Bremen
Tad Brunyé, Tufts University
Eric Chown, Bowdoin College
Christophe Claramunt, Naval Academy Research Institute, France
Michel Denis, LIMSI-CNRS
Gilles Fernandez,
Christian Freksa, University of Bremen
Mathieu Gallay, Paris Sorbonne University
Anthony Galton, University of Exeter
Nathan Greenauer, Penn State Berks
Joana Hois, University of Bremen
Parisa Kordjamshidi, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Catherine Mello, University of Cyprus
Marie-Francine Moens, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Nhung Nguyen, Bielefeld University
Martijn van Otterlo, Radboud University Nijmegen
Carl Schultz, University of Bremen
Inessa Seifert, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
Holly A. Taylor, Tufts University
Thora Tenbrink, Bangor University
Ipke Wachsmuth, Bielefeld University
Jan M. Wiener, Bournemouth University