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Defensive Wayfinding: Incongruent Information in Route Following

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Book cover Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2015)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9368))

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Abstract

Extensive research has focused on what constitutes good route directions, identifying qualities such as the logical sequential ordering, the inclusion of landmarks, and ergonomic ways of referring to turns as critical to delivering cognitively adequate instructions. In many cases, however, people are not actually provided with route directions adhering to these qualities. Yet, often people are still able to successfully navigate to the planned destinations, despite poor or even erroneous direction giving. In this paper, we introduce the concept of defensive wayfinding as the particular type of problem solving people undertake when presented with route directions incongruent with their experience of the environment. We present a systematic investigation of the incompatibilities that may occur between route descriptions and the environment. We note that the content of route directions is produced by the direction giver based on observations of the environment. We develop a classification of the impacts of uncertainty in these observations based on the theory of measurement scales of Stevens [33]. We then relate uncertainty to its impact on route following and the ability of the wayfinder to detect problems during wayfinding. We conclude with a discussion of the impacts of common-sense expectations on the need to engage in defensive wayfinding.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    e.g., http://www.toujourspret.com/techniques/orientation/exploration/releve_gilwell.gif.

  2. 2.

    e.g., http://www.ladakar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Dakar-Assistance-Roadbook-1.jpg.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Martin Tomko & Kai-Florian Richter

Authors
  1. Martin Tomko
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  2. Kai-Florian Richter
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Correspondence to Martin Tomko .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Sara Irina Fabrikant

  2. ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Martin Raubal

  3. School of Computer Science and Informatics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Michela Bertolotto

  4. University of Winchester, Winchester, United Kingdom

    Clare Davies

  5. Dept. of Geography and Env. Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    Scott Freundschuh

  6. College of Arts and Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada

    Scott Bell

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Tomko, M., Richter, KF. (2015). Defensive Wayfinding: Incongruent Information in Route Following. In: Fabrikant, S., Raubal, M., Bertolotto, M., Davies, C., Freundschuh, S., Bell, S. (eds) Spatial Information Theory. COSIT 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9368. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-23374-1

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