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Urban granularities—a data structure for cognitively ergonomic route directions

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Abstract

This paper addresses a data structure specification for route directions that incorporates essential aspects of cognitive information processing. Specifically, we characterize levels of granularity in route directions as the result of the hierarchical organization of urban spatial knowledge. We discuss changes of granularity in route directions that result from combining elementary route information into higher-order elements (so called spatial chunking). We provide a framework that captures the pertinent aspects of spatial chunking. The framework is based on established principles used—from a cognitive perspective—for changing the granularity in route directions. The data structure we specify based on this framework allows us to bridge the gap between results from behavioral cognitive science studies and requirements of information systems. We discuss the theoretical underpinning of the core elements of the data structure and provide examples for its application.

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Notes

  1. This distinction is reflected by differentiating on-line—route directions given while an agent is traveling—and in advance route directions—route directions given prior to the actual travel [16], [44]. A classification of different route direction styles is provided by [27].

  2. The complete specification of this data structure is available as a technical report [18].

  3. http://www.sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de/papers/SFB_TR_8_Rep_012-10_2006.pdf

  4. This observation holds for most intersections. Special cases such as highway exits or roundabouts where directions can be given in form or ordering information, e.g., third exit require an extension.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition, which is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), by the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information, whose activities are funded by the Australian Commonwealth’s Cooperative Research Centres Programme, and by Lisasoft, Australia. OpenLS is a trademark of the Open Geospatial Consortium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, GeoVISTA Center, Penn State, State College, PA, USA

    Alexander Klippel

  2. CRC Spatial Information, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Stefan Hansen

  3. LISAsoft, Pyrmont, Australia

    Stefan Hansen

  4. Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Kai-Florian Richter

  5. Department of Geomatics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Stephan Winter

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  1. Alexander Klippel
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Correspondence to Alexander Klippel.

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Klippel, A., Hansen, S., Richter, KF. et al. Urban granularities—a data structure for cognitively ergonomic route directions. Geoinformatica 13, 223–247 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-008-0051-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10707-008-0051-6

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