Cognitive Aspects: How People Perceive, Memorize, Think and Talk About Landmarks - Landmarks: GIScience for Intelligent Services - page 95

Fig. 3.9 Types of spatial and temporal knowledge involved in orientation and wayfinding

experienced, including objects standing out, signs or displays, announcements, or
designs that afford particular behavior [ 172 ] . This knowledge is directly accessible
to a person only within the range for perception, and it is typically stationary, but
not necessarily static. Finally, the 'knowledge in the pocket' is the metaphor for
all external representations of the environment, such as maps, sketches, or verbal
descriptions. More and more these representations are digital, which are accessible
for the person through a multitude of devices, and many of them portable or at arm's
length for ubiquitous access.
The triangle should not hide the fact that the three nodes of the triangle are usu-
ally out of sync. The mental spatial representation has been formed by experiences
over time, and each new encounter with a learned environment requires an ability
to maintain this representation. Other sources for information, whether human or
electronic, have also historic knowledge of the environment. These other accessible
representations are also selective. The selection, aggregation and abstraction of
objects to be stored were dependent on a particular context that is typically
inaccessible in a current communication situation. Last but not least, representations
are inherently uncertain. The latter is dictated by physics already. There is no such
thing as an accurate observation of a reality such as an environment.
Interaction with the physical environment as well as with external representations
of the environment is based on the concepts in a mental spatial representation,
which, as we have seen, is heavily based on landmarks. Interaction with “knowledge
in the pocket” requires the provider of the knowledge in the pocket to relate to
the spatial mental representation for ease of use. People being able to pick up
with ease presented information with their own mental spatial representation will
be able to keep orientation and wayfinding at low cognitive load. This ability is
important because both tasks are not primary purposes or activities of a human
being. Movement always serves as a means to an end. Nonetheless, movement is
an activity requiring constant interaction and coordination with the environment,
including other people. Hence, “devices in our pockets” must become intelligent.
The intelligent machine, in this sense, is a machine interacting with humans on their
terms [ 55 ] when addressing spatial problems. If only for this reason the machine
must understand landmarks for intelligent interaction with people.