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Coding serial order of information is a fundamental ability of our cognitive system, and still, little is known about its neural substrate. This study examined the neural substrates involved in the retrieval of information that is serially stored in verbal working memory task using a sensitive multivariate analysis approach. We compared neural activity for memorized items stemming from the beginning versus the end of a memory list assessing the degree of neural pattern discordance between order positions (beginning vs. end). The present results confirmed and refined the role of the intraparietal sulcus in the processing of serial order information in working memory. An important finding is that the hippocampus showed sensitivity to serial order information. Our results indicate that the representation of serial order information relies on a broader set of neural areas and highlight the role of the intraparietal sulcus and the hippocampus, in addition to the supramarginal gyrus and the SMA. The contribution of different neural regions might reflect the involvement of distinct levels of serial order coding (i.e., spatial, attentional, temporal) that support the representation of serial order information.

Orientation and mobility apps for visually impaired people are well known to be effective in improving the quality of life for this target group. A mobile application that guides a visually impaired person step-by-step through a physical space is a valuable aid, but it does not provide an overview of a complex environment "at a glance," as a traditional hard-copy tactile map does. The aim of this study is to investigate whether a smartphone GPS map, enriched with haptic and audio hints, can facilitate cognitive mapping for visually impaired users. Encouraged by a preliminary study conducted in co-operation with two visually impaired volunteers, we designed and developed an Android prototype for exploration of an urban area. Our goal was to provide an affordable, portable and versatile solution to help users increase awareness of an environment through the positions of its landmarks and points of interest. Vibro-tactile and audio hints were linked to the coordinates on the map via the GeoJSON data format and were issued exploiting the text-to-speech and vibration features of the mobile device, as they were displayed through the operating system's APIs. Test sessions and interviews with visually impaired users produced encouraging results. Results, to be verified by more extensive testing, overall confirm the validity of our approach and are in line with results found in the literature.

This paper describes a study, which is currently underway, whose aim is to investigate how the haptic channel can be effectively exploited by visually impaired users in a mobile app for the preliminary exploration of an indoor environment, namely a shopping mall. Our goal was to use haptics to convey knowledge of how the points of interest (POIs) are distributed within the physical space, and at the same time provide information about the function of each POI, so that users can get a perception of how functional areas are distributed in the environment "at a glance". Shopping malls are typical indoor environments in which orientation aids are highly appreciated by customers, and many different functional areas persist. We identified seven typical categories of POIs which can be encountered in a mall, and then associated a different vibration pattern each. In order to validate our approach, we designed and developed a prototype for preliminary testing, based on the Android platform. The prototype was periodically debugged with the aid of two visually impaired experienced users, who gave us precious advice throughout the development process. We will describe how this app was conceived, the issues emerged during its development and the positive outcomes produced by a very early testing stage. Finally, we will show that the proposed approach is promising and is worthy of further investigation.

Mekânın algılanması ve bilişsel süreçlerde bireysel özellikler, geçmiş deneyimler ve rutinleşmiş davranışlar önemli bir yere sahiptir. Buçalışmanın amacı bireylerin sosyo-ekonomik ve demografik özelliklerinin, mekânın algılanması ve mekânsal bilişin oluşumuna etkisinientegre analiz teknikleri ile ortaya çıkarmaktır. Çalışmada kullanılan veriler anketler aracılığı ile toplanmıştır. Çalışmanın evreniniGiresun Üniversitesi’nin Giresun şehrindeki birimlerinde eğitim-öğretim faaliyetlerine katılan öğrenciler oluşturmaktadır. Elde edilenveriler SPSS yazılımı ile hem betimsel hem de istatistiksel olarak analiz edilmiştir. Ortak kümeleme yöntemi kullanılarak bilişsel haritalarArcGIS ortamına aktarılmıştır. Bilişsel haritalar üzerindeki etkisi istatistiksel olarak kanıtlanmış olan değişkenler CBS tabanlı bilişselharitalara aktarılmıştır. Sonuç olarak bireylerin sosyo-ekonomik ve demografik özellikleri ile mekânsal algıları arasındaki ilişki tespitedilmiştir. Örneklem grubunda mekânsal deneyim süresi daha uzun olan grupların bilişsel haritalarındaki fenomen sayısı ve bilişselharitalara ait detaylar daha az çıkmıştır. Deneyim süresi daha kısa olan gruplarda ise tersi bulgulara ulaşılmıştır. Metalaşmaya dayalıtüketim toplumunda mekânın da metalaştığı ve insanların bilişlerinde yer etme süresinin kısalarak hızla tükendiği sonucuna varılmıştır.Çalışmamız hem ortaya koyduğu sonuçlar hem de sonuçlara ulaşmak amacıyla kullanmış olduğu entegre analiz teknikleri ile literatürekatkı sunmayı hedeflemektedir. In the perception ofspace and cognitive processes, individual characteristics, past experiences and routine behavior have an important place. The aim of this study is to reveal the effect ofsocio-economic and demographic features of individual on the perception ofspace and the formation of spatial cognition. For this, integrated analysis techniques were used. The data used in the study were collected through via questionnaires. The population of the study consists of students who participate in educational activities in the units of Giresun University in Giresun city.The data obtained were analyzed both descriptively and statistically with SPSS software. Cognitive maps were transferred to ArcGIS environment by using common clustering method. The variables that statistically proven effect on cognitive maps were transferred to GIS based cognitive maps. As a result, the relationship between the socio-economic and demographic features with spatial perceptions of individuals was determined. The number of phenomena in the cognitive maps and the details of the cognitive maps were more poor in the sample group with longer spatial experience. It has been concluded that in the meta-based consumer society, the space also commodifies, and the time it takes to get involved in people's cognition is shortened rapidly. It is thought that the study will provide significant contributions to the literature due to the use of both findings and different analysis techniques.

For international businesses to thrive, global managers must have global mindsets, which require cognitive complexity. Complex thinking should include the ability to see and analyze issues from all levels of analysis, from the micro, meso, and macro levels. However, no studies measure multilevel thinking in cognitive complexity. Because of the complexities involved in international business, cogni-tive complexity is particularly important when global managers deal with multi-faceted international business management issues like the management of organi-zational behavior in terms of, for instance, communication, motivation, leadership, conflict, and negotiation. Although global managers deal with these issues daily, cognitive complexity is not yet studied in relation to the level of complexity with which managers think about these issues. This paper argues the need to revise the conceptualization and operationalization of cognitive complexity to cover the full complexity of managerial thinking. Therefore, measurement of managers’ cognitive complexity as it relates to a particular issue should include analysis of their thinking at the micro, meso, and macro levels. The paper also argues that such measurement requires measurement methods like cognitive mapping, which has several advantages over other methods. This study fills a gap in the research by proposing an assess-ment of multilevel thinking using cognitive maps to measure managers’ cognitive complexity in addressing issues like the management of international organizational behavior.

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technologies have a high potential to combat healthcare challenges while supporting older adults to live independently at their own home. Despite the general positive uptake of such technology, perceptions of barriers of acceptance persist, a major one regards privacy. With an explorative qualitative approach, the current study aimed at investigating participantsc̀ognitive representations of a scenario in which AAL is installed in the own home as a support at an older age. Special focus was on eliciting participantsìmplications for privacy in this scenario and to understand the individual requirements of using AAL technology at home. Opinions of 12 participants (age range: 23-81 years) from Germany and Switzerland were assessed through semi-structured interviews. The paper presents descriptive results and emerging themes of the mapping approach. The results show the usefulness of the method to understand thought processes of potential users regarding privacy preferences and technology usage. Findings might be useful to inform technical designers as well as lawmakers to consider these usage requirements during technology or law development.

For efficient navigation, the brain needs to adequately represent the environment in a cognitive map. In this review, we sought to give an overview of literature about cognitive map formation based on non-visual modalities in persons with blindness (PWBs) and sighted persons. The review is focused on the auditory and haptic modalities, including research that combines multiple modalities and real-world navigation. Furthermore, we addressed implications of route and survey representations. Taking together, PWBs as well as sighted persons can build up cognitive maps based on non-visual modalities, although the accuracy sometime somewhat differs between PWBs and sighted persons. We provide some speculations on how to deploy information from different modalities to support cognitive map formation. Furthermore, PWBs and sighted persons seem to be able to construct route as well as survey representations. PWBs can experience difficulties building up a survey representation, but this is not always the case, and research suggests that they can acquire this ability with sufficient spatial information or training. We discuss possible explanations of these inconsistencies.

The functional role of the entorhinal-hippocampal system has been a long withstanding mystery. One key theory that has become most popular is that the entorhinal-hippocampal system represents space to facilitate navigation in one’s surroundings. In this Perspective article, I introduce a novel idea that undermines the inherent uniqueness of spatial information in favor of time driving entorhinal-hippocampal activity. Specifically, by spatializing events that occur in succession (i.e., across time), the entorhinal-hippocampal system is critical for all types of cognitive representations. I back up this argument with empirical evidence that hints at a role for the entorhinal-hippocampal system in non-spatial representation, and computational models of the logarithmic compression of time in the brain.

An adequate strategy for water quality improvement must consider a range of political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTEL) concepts. Nature-based solutions have emerged as promising tools to improve water quality while considering these factors. In this context, fuzzy cognitive maps and the PESTEL approach have been merged to i) identify the principal concepts that affect water quality from different perspectives, and ii) theoretically explore the use of artificial floating islands as a measure of nature-based solution combined with different policies, to find strategies to improve water quality given local conditions. For this purpose, three Ecuadorian communities are used as scenarios. The communities are located in different geographical regions, i.e., páramo (an alpine tundra ecosystem), coastal mangrove, and tropical rainforest. From literature-based research, 40 PESTEL concepts are identified, then local experts recognize relevant concepts related to water quality deterioration regarding local conditions, and the communities develop fully democratic social cognitive maps. The cognitive map from the páramo community is constructed with 17 concepts mainly driven by environment (23%) and economy (23%). The major problem identified is natural water pollutants with the highest centrality value (ci = 12.22). The mangrove community uses 19 concepts influenced by policy (48%), and the major issue is human exposure to environmental pollutants (ci = 16.27). The rainforest community uses 15 concepts related to the economy (40%), and the major problem is the violation of environmental legislation (ci = 15.96). Our pioneer work to predict the future of water management shows that in the worst-case scenario, more than 85% of concepts are affected in all communities. However, the implementation of policy strategies in combination with artificial floating islands demonstrates a large potential for improving water quality. With this study, we provide a novel, inclusive, and locally adapted framework to guide future water management and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal SDG 6.

The concept of green supply chain management emerged as a response to increasing public awareness of environmental protection in the past few decades. As companies tend to outsource a variety of their activities, green supplier selection as an imperative function of green supply chain management, has a crucial role in helping companies to maintain their strategic competitiveness. Despite the plethora of studies introducing supplier selection models based on economic criteria, studies that take into account the environmental issues are rather limited. In this study, a comprehensive grey-based green supplier selection model is proposed that incorporates both economic and environmental criteria. A novel weight assignment model is proposed by combining best-worst method and fuzzy grey cognitive maps to capture the interdependencies among the criteria. Improved grey relational analysis is advanced to be able to use grey weights of criteria to evaluate green suppliers which are subsequently ranked using an interval analysis approach. This study contributes to the decision-making theory by addressing the shortcomings of the available green supplier selection models. A real-world case study is also presented to show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed model. The results of this study proved the proposed comprehensive model to be well capable of addressing the green supplier selection problem by taking in to account the interdependencies between criteria as well as the uncertainties associated with experts’ judgments.

The aim of the article is determining the level of innovative development of machine-building enterprises based on cognitive modeling for strategic management scenarios. It is found that the formation of scenarios using cognitive technologies is an important method under uncertainty since it allows to determine the boundaries of possible strategic changes in innovative development of machine-building enterprises and effectively manage them. The stages of using the technology of cognitive modeling for the formation of strategic innovation management of machine-building enterprises and the approaches to developing scenarios for the formation of strategic innovation management of machine-building enterprises are considered. It is determined that cognitive maps are used in the process of analyzing and making effective decisions on the formation of strategic innovation management of machine-building enterprises by studying causal relationships between significant factors (notions, concepts). A general cognitive map of strategic innovation management of machine-building enterprises is proposed. At each stage of the formation of the model, decisions, the totality of which determines the flexibility, activity and adaptability of the constructed model, have to be made.

Credit to personal consumption is an important activity of the financial system and crucial to the socioeconomic development of a country. It is important, therefore, that the methods and techniques used to evaluate consumer credit risk be as efficient and informative as possible, in order to strengthen decisions to approve or reject credit and promote sustainable economic growth. This study aims to create a multiple criteria expert system which integrates cognitive maps and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical-based evaluation technique (MACBETH) to create a complementary framework for consumer credit risk assessment. The results show that this integrated approach allows the evaluation process of consumer credit risk to be more informed and transparent, providing value for the evaluation processes of this type of credit application as a result of the privileged contact established with a panel of credit analysts. Advantages, limitations, and managerial implications are also discussed.

Plithogenic sets introduced by Smarandache (2018) have disclosed new research vistas and this paper introduces the novel concept of plithogenic cognitive maps (PCM) and its applications in decision making. The new approach of defining instantaneous state neutrosophic vector with the confinement of indeterminacy to (0,1] is proposed to quantify the degree of indeterminacy. The resultant vector is obtained by applying instantaneous state vector through the connection matrix together with plithogenic operators comprising the contradiction degrees. The connection matrix is represented as fuzzy matrix and neutrosophic matrix and the resultant vector is determined by applying plithogenic fuzzy operators and plithogenic neutrosophic operators respectively. The obtained results are highly feasible in making the decision as it incorporates the contradiction degree of the conceptual nodes with respect to the dominant node. This research work will certainly pave the way for developing new approaches in decision making using PCM.

Understanding complex systems is essential to ensure their conservation and effective management. Models commonly support understanding of complex ecological systems and, by extension, their conservation. Modeling, however, is largely a social process constrained by individuals’ mental models (i.e., a small‐scale internal model of how a part of the world works based on knowledge, experience, values, beliefs, and assumptions) and system complexity. To account for both system complexity and the diversity of knowledge of complex systems, we devised a novel way to develop a shared qualitative complex system model. We disaggregated a system (carbonate coral reefs) into smaller subsystem modules that each represented a functioning unit, about which an individual is likely to have more comprehensive knowledge. This modular approach allowed us to elicit an individual mental model of a defined subsystem for which the individuals had a higher level of confidence in their knowledge of the relationships between variables. The challenge then was to bring these subsystem models together to form a complete, shared model of the entire system, which we attempted through 4 phases: develop the system framework and subsystem modules; develop the individual mental model elicitation methods; elicit the mental models; and identify and isolate differences for exploration and identify similarities to cocreate a shared qualitative model. The shared qualitative model provides opportunities to develop a quantitative model to understand and predict complex system change., Article Impact Statement: Integration of knowledge sets across disciplines improves understanding and conservation of complex systems.

In the most recent years,there has been a massive Venezuelan emigration toSanto Domingo city in Ecuador. This phenomenon has affected the local economy as well as the society of the city. This paper aims to study the economic impact of Venezuelan emigration tothe city ofSanto Domingo since a NeutrosophicCognitive Map (NCM) approach. The advantage of using NCMs is that the causal relationships between the variables that influence the phenomenon under study areestablished and ranked in order of their importance. This allowsdetermining which are the elements related to the Venezuelan migration to the Ecuadorian city of Santo Domingo that most impact the city economically, andif this impact is positive or negative for citizens and migrants. Finally, decision-makers will be provided with valuable information to take the necessary measures, where those favorable trends are reinforced and the unfavorable ones are reversed, always that humanitarian policies were dictated.

In the Baltic Sea region, salmon are valued for the ecological, economic, and cultural benefits they provide. However, these fish are threatened due to historical overfishing, disease, and reduced access to spawning rivers. Climate change may pose another challenge for salmon management. Therefore, we conducted a problem-framing study to explore the effects climate change may have on salmon and the socio-ecological system they are embedded within. Addressing this emerging issue will require the cooperation of diverse stakeholders and the integration of their knowledge and values in a contentious management context. Therefore, we conducted this problem framing as a participatory process with stakeholders, whose mental models and questionnaire responses form the basis of this study. By framing the climate change problem in this way, we aim to provide a holistic understanding of the problem and incorporate stakeholder perspectives into the management process from an early stage to better address their concerns and establish common ground. We conclude that considering climate change is relevant for Baltic salmon management, although it may not be the most pressing threat facing these fish. Stakeholders disagree about whether climate change will harm or benefit salmon, when it will become a relevant issue in the Baltic context, and whether or not management efforts can mitigate any negative impacts climate change may have on salmon and their fishery. Nevertheless, by synthesizing the stakeholders' influence diagrams, we found 15 themes exemplifying: (1) how climate change may affect salmon, (2) goals for salmon management considering climate change, and (3) strategies for achieving those goals. Further, the stakeholders tended to focus on the riverine environment and the salmon life stages occurring therein, potentially indicating the perceived vulnerability of these life stages to climate change. Interestingly, however, the stakeholders tended to focus on traditional fishery management measures, like catch quotas, to meet their goals for these fish considering climate change. Further, social variables, like “politics,” “international cooperation,” and “employment” comprised a large proportion of the stakeholders' diagrams, demonstrating the importance of these factors for salmon management.

Summary Organisms adapt to their environments by learning to approach states that predict rewards and avoid states associated with punishments. Knowledge about the affective value of states often relies on credit assignment (CA), whereby state values are updated on the basis of reward feedback. Remarkably, humans assign credit to states that are not observed but are instead inferred based on a cognitive map that represents structural knowledge of an environment. A pertinent example is authors attempting to infer the identity of anonymous reviewers to assign them credit or blame and, on this basis, inform future referee recommendations. Although inference is cognitively costly, it is unknown how it influences CA or how it is apportioned between hidden and observable states (for example, both anonymous and revealed reviewers). We addressed these questions in a task that provided choices between lotteries where each led to a unique pair of occasionally rewarding outcome states. On some trials, both states were observable (rendering inference nugatory), whereas on others, the identity of one of the states was concealed. Importantly, by exploiting knowledge of choice-state associations, subjects could infer the identity of this hidden state. We show that having to perform inference reduces state-value updates. Strikingly, and in violation of normative theories, this reduction in CA was selective for the observed outcome alone. These findings have implications for the operation of putative cognitive maps., Highlights • Humans assign credit to hidden task states inferred based on a cognitive map • The necessity to infer task states taxes the efficiency of credit assignment • Credit assignment is prioritized for hidden over observable task states • Inference might be driven by intrinsic (beyond instrumental) value of information, Moran et al. study how credit assignment (CA) and cognitive-map-based inference interact in reinforcement learning. They find that CA is taxed when the identities of hidden task states need to be inferred using a cognitive map, and that, despite the cognitive costs that inference entails, latent states are prioritized over observable states in CA.

Evolved living beings can anticipate the consequences of their actions in complex multilevel dynamic situations. This ability relies on abstracting the meaning of an action. The underlying brain mechanisms of such semantic processing of information are poorly understood. Here we show how our novel concept, known as time compaction, provides a natural way of representing semantic knowledge of actions in time-changing situations. As a testbed, we model a fencing scenario with a subject deciding between attack and defense strategies. The semantic content of each action in terms of lethality, versatility, and imminence is then structured as a spatial (static) map representing a particular fencing (dynamic) situation. The model allows deploying a variety of cognitive strategies in a fast and reliable way. We validate the approach in virtual reality and by using a real humanoid robot.

International audience; AbstractBiochar has been proposed as a technology to mitigate climate change as well as improving soil fertility, energy production, and organic waste treatment. However, the implementation of such techniques in existing cropping systems requires knowledge about potential adaptation barriers. These adaptation barriers are only partly dependent on expected benefits but are deeply embedded in the place-specific settings and livelihood practices of agricultural communities. An integration of adaptation barriers in the development of biochar system designs has the potential not only to facilitate farmer’s decision but also to enhance community resilience and reduce their vulnerability. We propose a holistic methodology that considers communities as social-ecological systems. We applied this approach to agricultural communities in two villages with different cropping systems in South India. First, we modeled the social-ecological system of each village, based on qualitative interviews with local farmers, using cognitive mapping. Second, we tested the implementation scenarios of two types of biochar system designs (small-/large-scale) and a worst-case failure scenario, which were developed by triangulating theoretical information from literature review with information from qualitative interviews and focus groups. Third, we analyzed the outcome on the resilience and vulnerability of the social-ecological systems to define the place-specific adaptation barriers. We were able to successfully capture for the first time the adaptation barriers of two communities concerning a biochar system implementation. We could show that sustainable biochar system designs not only differ depending on site but also demonstrate particularly the relevance of procedural processes independent of site, such as maintenance of autonomy, provision of participation in planning, or promotion of farmers’ cooperatives with regional industries. We are certain that this approach could be used for the setting up of future biochar systems or novel technology in general not only in tropical regions but elsewhere.

Urban living is a major risk factor for psychosis. Considering worldwide increasing rates of urbanization, new approaches are needed to enhance patients’ wellbeing in cities. Recent data suggest that once psychosis has emerged, patients struggle to adapt to urban milieu and that they lose access to city centers, which contributes to isolation and reduced social contacts. While it is acknowledged that there are promising initiatives to improve mental health in cities, concrete therapeutic strategies to help patients with psychosis to better handle urban stress are lacking. We believe that we should no longer wait to develop and test new therapeutic approaches. In this review, we first focus on the role of urban planning, policies, and design, and second on possible novel therapeutic strategies at the individual level. We review how patients with psychosis may experience stress in the urban environment. We then review and describe a set of possible strategies, which could be proposed to patients with the first-episode psychosis. We propose to group these strategies under the umbrella term of ‘urban remediation’ and discuss how this novel approach could help patients to recover from their first psychotic episode. The concepts developed in this paper are speculative and a lot of work remains to be done before it can be usefully proposed to patients. However, considering the high prevalence of social withdrawal and its detrimental impact on the recovery process, we strongly believe that researchers should invest this new domain to help patients regain access to city centers.

Inspired by HCI research advocating for the inclusion of children in the design process, this pictorial provides a qualitative case study on children's perceptions of urban landscapes. Our goal is to create digital maps in the context of locative systems and wayfinding for children. For this purpose, we engaged 70 students from the city of Funchal (Portugal) in the drawing of a cognitive map of their journey from home to school in the Fall of 2017. These children (9-12 years old) also replied to a brief survey, and 31 out of 70 responded to a face-to-face interview in the Spring of 2018. This pictorial offers an analysis of the drawings as well as providing highlights of the children's own account of their maps. Our work generates a set of 10 themes related to landmarks and design ideas for the creation of digital maps for children.

Humans and animals can learn to order a list of items without relying on explicit spatial or temporal cues. To do so, they appear to make use of transitivity, a property of all ordered sets. Here, we summarize relevant research on the transitive inference (TI) paradigm and its relationship to learning the underlying order of an arbitrary set of items. We compare six computational models of TI performance, three of which are model-free (Q-learning, Value Transfer, and REMERGE) and three of which are model-based (RL-Elo, Sequential Monte Carlo, and Betasort). Our goal is to assess the ability of these models to produce empirically observed features of TI behavior. Model-based approaches perform better under a wider range of scenarios, but no single model explains the full scope of behaviors reported in the TI literature.

The workshop organizers acknowledge the financial support received by the Lorentz Center and by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). This article presents a glossary of terms that are frequently used in research on human crowds. This topic is inherently multidisciplinary as it includes work in and across computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics, psychology and social science, for example. We do not view the glossary presented here as a collection of finalised and formal definitions. Instead, we suggest it is a snapshot of current views and the starting point of an ongoing process that we hope will be useful in providing some guidance on the use of terminology to develop a mutual understanding across disciplines. The glossary was developed collaboratively during a multidisciplinary meeting. We deliberately allow several definitions of terms, to reflect the confluence of disciplines in the field. This also reflects the fact not all contributors necessarily agree with all definitions in this glossary. Publisher PDF

Ontology datasets, which encode the expert-defined complex objects mapping the entities, relations, and structures of a domain ontology, are increasingly being integrated into the performance of challenging knowledge-based tasks. Yet, it is hard to use ontology datasets within our tasks without first understanding the ontology which it describes. Using visual representation and interaction design, interactive visualization tools can help us learn and develop our understanding of unfamiliar ontologies. After a review of existing tools which visualize ontology datasets, we find that current design practices struggle to support learning tasks when attempting to build understanding of the ontological spaces within ontology datasets. During encounters with unfamiliar spaces, our cognitive processes align with the theoretical framework of cognitive map formation. Furthermore, designing encounters to promote cognitive map formation can improve our performance during learning tasks. In this paper, we examine related work on cognitive load, cognitive map formation, and the use of interactive visualizations during learning tasks. From these findings, we formalize a set of high-level design criteria for visualizing ontology datasets to promote cognitive map formation during learning tasks. We then perform a review of existing tools which visualize ontology datasets and assess their interface design towards their alignment with the cognitive map framework. We then present PRONTOVISE (PRogressive ONTOlogy VISualization Explorer), an interactive visualization tool which applies the high-level criteria within its design. We perform a task-based usage scenario to illustrate the design of PRONTOVISE. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of PRONTOVISE and its use of the criteria towards the design of interactive visualization tools which help us develop understanding of the ontological space within ontology datasets.

Greater competition and the aftermath of the financial crisis have meant that banks are increasingly focused on improving service quality and achieving higher levels of customer loyalty. Doing so requires being able to identify, understand and measure the determinants of such loyalty, however; and given the variety of multi-faceted factors involved, and the interrelationships among them, this is a complex undertaking. This paper proposes and tests an integrated application of cognitive mapping and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), thus combining metacognitive and psychometric decision-making approaches, to create a framework for the assessment of bank customer loyalty, which identifies its determinants and allows the trade-offs among them to be calculated. Practical advantages and limitations of our proposal are also discussed. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Eliciting stakeholders’ mental models is an important participatory modeling (PM) tool for building systems knowledge, a frequent challenge in natural resource management. Therefore, mental models constitute a valu-able source of information, making it imperative to document them in detail, while preserving the integrity of stakeholders’ beliefs. We propose a methodology, the Rich Elicitation Approach (REA), which combines direct and indirect elicitation techniques to meet these goals. We describe the approach in the context of the effects of climate change on Baltic salmon. The REA produced holistic depictions of mental models, with more variables and causal relationships per diagram than direct elicitation alone, thus providing a solid knowledge base on which to begin PM studies. The REA was well received by stakeholders and fulfilled the substantive, normative, instrumental, and educational functions of PM. However, motivating stakeholders to confirm the accuracy of their models during the verification stage of the REA was challenging.

Spatial memory has fascinated psychologists ever since the discipline began, but a series of findings beginning in the middle of last century propelled its study into the domain of neuroscience and helped bring about the cognitive revolution in psychology. Starting with the discovery that the hippocampus plays a central role in memory, particularly spatial memory, studies of the mammalian hippocampus and related regions over the latter half of the century slowly uncovered an extensive neural system involved in processing place, head direction, objects, speed and other spatially informative parameters. Meanwhile, the concurrent discovery of hippocampal synaptic plasticity allowed theoreticians and experimentalists to collaborate in linking spatial perception and memory, and genetic techniques developed towards the end of the century opened the door to circuit dissections of these processes. Building on these discoveries, spatial cognition and episodic memory may be the first cognitive competences understood across all levels from molecules to behaviour.

Local ecological knowledge, or the collective perceptions held by a particular group about their environment, results from the transmission of cultural knowledge from one generation to the next, combined with regular and persistent interactions between individuals and the biophysical environment. Management systems that limit access to certain natural resources likely have an effect on the quality of that knowledge. We explore the distribution of local ecological knowledge as it corresponds to different types of fishing activities and experience among fishermen in the eastern Gulf of Maine. We use a network approach to analyze cognitive maps of the ecosystem structure and dynamics described by fishermen during in-depth, open-ended interviews. The interviews reveal unique perspectives on complex interactions between species and their habitat, providing insights about local fluctuations in water temperature and weather patterns, predator-prey dynamics and interspecies competition, with a particular focus on species of commercial interest. We find a significant positive relationship between individuals' diversification in fisheries and the scope of their knowledge. The preliminary findings suggest that fishermen with diversified fishing portfolios interact with a broader range of components in the system, resulting in a more holistic understanding of the marine environment and its dynamics. Because regulatory measures in fisheries management increasingly constrain the ability of individuals to enter diverse fisheries, these findings have significant implications for sustainability and understanding the role that institutions play in shaping local ecological knowledge more generally. A more systematic investigation of how institutional constraints affect the distribution of local ecological knowledge would be well-positioned to inform ecosystem-based approaches in fisheries management.

Spatial knowledge is fundamental for the autonomy and the improvement of quality of life for individuals with blindness. Multisensory applications that integrate tactile and audio stimuli can provide to individuals with blindness valuable information associated with the structure and the content of space. Low cost haptic devices can significantly contribute in this direction. The present study examines the spatial knowledge that individuals with blindness may build by studying an audio-haptic map of a multisensory application, through the use of the low cost haptic device Novint Falcon. Ten adults with blindness (totally blind or only light perception) took part in the research. The age ranged from 19 years to 46 years. Participants managed to build significant spatial knowledge using the multisensory application. More specifically, rich cognitive maps were observed. The results reveal the usefulness of similar applications for individuals with blindness.

Huge amount of internet connected devices affect the usual way of people lives. People now try to find a way to operate all devices they have in the most efficient way. Cognitive maps are used as models for problems analysis on a strategic level in enterprises. In this paper Web of Service concept is defined and further business model of a Social Web of Service-based company is suggested. We also developed mathematical model of customer experience based on cognitive maps which should further be applied to the proposed business model which should improve customer experience management in the enterprise.

Since some experiments analyzed impact of navigation tools on pedestrian navigation (Ishikawa, Fujiwara, Imai & Okabe 2008; Wang & Worboys 2016) few have studied how interactive devices between mobile participants possibly transform their cognitive maps. After many years of interactive artistic experiences between participants in distant cities, the goal ofthe present research is a better understanding of the links between mental, instrumental and shared maps. The question is whether connected and dynamic applications renew our shared mental representations of urban spaces. We will approach the notion of mental maps (introduced by Tolman) in its individual and collective dimension with regard to the new usescreated by connecting devices. The hypothesis is that new access to cartographic tools is likely to produce new kinds of individual mental representations. Method: in these preliminary results, the objective is to compare the mental maps evidenced by maps drawn after the exploration of a single urban district between 2 groups of participants: 1) group of individuals equipped simply with a passive GPS tracking tool, 2) group of individuals equipped with an urban navigation application (Google map). Measures will include: 1) comparison of landmarks hierarchies, 2) Comparison of routes tracesand icons, 3) Direct comparison by distances between geographical landmarks and drawing landmarks by superposition of the two kinds of maps, 4) Relative comparison between internal distances in geographical landmarks and internal distances between drawings landmarks. We will compare the two groups relative to these measures. In these preliminary investigations, and contrary to some assumptions (Ishikawa, Wang) we cannot find obvious confirmation that pedestrian’susers of Google map have worse results from cognitive mapping that others without this device.

This paper investigates the relationship between street properties and cognitive maps. It is focused on the question of how human cognition of the built environment is affected by street properties. Building on the foundations of Kevin Lynch's studies of environmental perception (Lynch 1960) and recent configuration measurement techniques of the built environment, it addresses an important question that Lynch has left unresolved: Why do people have more complete recollections of some parts of the urban environment, and not others? This paper proposes an analytical measurement framework based on graph theory to compare the results of cognitive maps with objective spatial properties of the corresponding built environment. In order to test our hypothesis, street geometry is measured and defined based on graph theory in two selected areas with similar geometries in Kenmore, Boston and Kendall Sq., Cambridge, MA. Cognitive maps are then collected based on specifically designed map drawing surveys. Finally, the relationship between graph results and cognitive maps is examined in order to identify the ways that street properties affect human perception.

A busca da sustentabilidade nas organizações demanda de seus participantes uma complexidade cognitiva mais elevada devido às suas dimensões sistêmicas e aos seus múltiplos critérios associados à economia, à sociedade e ao meio ambiente. Este artigo estuda a relação entre Grau de Complexidade Cognitiva (GCC) e Sustentabilidade em Organizações (SEO) de empresas listadas no Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE) da Bolsa de Valores de São Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA). Como metodologia de pesquisa, adotou-se uma abordagem qualitativa, conduzida por meio de estudo de casos múltiplos. Utilizou-se pesquisa documental para levantar relatórios de sustentabilidade e questionários do ISE que foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo. A amostra intencional foi constituída por seis empresas que disponibilizaram por completo seus relatórios de sustentabilidade e questionários do ISE. As avaliações de GCC e SEO das empresas foram realizadas respectivamente sob as óticas do modelo de Criação de Valor Sustentável (CVS) e das dimensões, critérios e indicadores do ISE. Resultados de análises permitiram verificar similaridades e diferenças entre os casos estudados e confirmaram a existência de uma relação com tendência positiva entre GCC e SEO. The search for organizational sustainability in organizations demands a higher cognitive complexity from their participants due to their systemic dimensions and various aspects associated with the economy, society and environment. This paper studies the relationship between Degree of Cognitive Complexity (DCC) and Sustainability in Organizations (SIO) of companies that participate in the Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI) of Bolsa de Valores of São Paulo (BM & FBOVESPA - the Brazilian Stock Exchange). Its research methodology was based on a qualitative approach and multiple case studies. Document research was used to find sustainability reports and CSI questionnaires were implemented and then subjected to content analysis. An intentional sample was composed of six companies that made their full sustainability reports and CSI questionnaires available. The companies' DCC and SIO were respectively evaluated from the perspectives of Sustainable Value Creation (SVC) and Corporate Sustainability Index (CSI). Comparative analyses showed similarities and differences among the cases and a tendency for a positive relationship between DCC and SIO.

Δημοσίευση σε επιστημονικό περιοδικό Summarization: It has long been recognized that controller strategies are based on a ‘mental picture’ or representation of traffic situations. Earlier studies indicated that controllers tend to maintain a selective representation of traffic flows based on a few salient traffic features that point out to interesting events (e.g., potential conflicts). A field study is presented in this paper that examines salient features or ‘knowledge variables’ that constitute the building blocks of controller mental pictures. Verbal reports from participants, a field experiment and observations of real-life scenarios provided insights into the cognitive processes that shape and reframe the mental pictures of controllers. Several cognitive processes (i.e., problem detection, elaboration, reframing and replanning) have been explored within a particular framework of sensemaking stemming from the data/frame theory (Klein et al., 2007). Cognitive maps, representing standard and non-standard air traffic flows, emerged as an explanatory framework for making sense of traffic patterns and for reframing mental pictures. The data/frame theory proved to be a useful theoretical tool for investigating complex cognitive phenomena. The findings of the study have implications for the design of training curricula and decision support systems in air traffic control systems. Παρουσιάστηκε στο: Applied Ergonomics

Much research has identified and confirmed the core elements of the well-known Community of Inquiry Framework (CoIF): Social, Cognitive and Teaching Presence (Garrison, 2011). The overlap of these Presences, their definitions and roles, and their subsequent impact on the educational experience, has received less attention. This article is prompted by the acceptance of that omission (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2010). It proposes enrichment to the Framework, by entitling the overlapping spaces uniting pairs of Presences as “Influences.” These three spaces, linking pairings of Social, Teaching, and Cognitive Presences, can be labelled as “trusting,” “meaning-making,” and “deepening understanding.” Their contribution to the educational experience is to address constructively some of the challenges of online learning, including learner isolation, limited learner experience of collaborative group work and underdeveloped higher-level abilities. For these purposes we also envisage “cognitive maps” as supporting learners to assess progress to date and identify pathways forward (Garrison & Akyol, 2013). Such maps, developed by a course team, describe the territory that learners may wish to explore, signpost possible activities, and encourage the development of cognitive and interpersonal abilities required for online learning. We hope that considering the Influences may also assist tutor conceptualisations of online community-based learning. Our proposals call on both learners and tutors to conceive of the Presences and Influences as working together, in unison, to enhance the educational experience whilst fostering deep learning. Our suggestions are presented to stimulate scholarly debate about the potential of these interwoven sections, constructively extending the Framework.

Date of Conference: September 05 - 08 2016 The aim of this study is to explore the effects of colour as visuo-spatial cue on spatial navigation and developing a cognitive map in elderly in a simulated virtual hospital environment. The study further purports to explore whether it is possible to improve elders' spatial navigation and cognitive mapping performances as well as younger-aged group, by the aid of coloured visuo-spatial cues. © 2016 ACM.

The delay associated with cerebral processing time implies a lack of real-time representation of changes in the observed environment. To bridge this gap for motor actions in a dynamical environment, the brain uses predictions of the most plausible future reality based on previously provided information. To optimise these predictions, adjustments to actual experiences are necessary. This requires a perceptual memory buffer. In our study we gained more insight how the brain treats (real-time) information by comparing cerebral activations related to judging past-, present- and future locations of a moving ball, respectively. Eighteen healthy subjects made these estimations while fMRI data was obtained. All three conditions evoked bilateral dorsal-parietal and premotor activations, while judgment of the location of the ball at the moment of judgment showed increased bilateral posterior hippocampus activation relative to making both future and past judgments at the one-second time-sale. Since the condition of such 'real-time' judgments implied undistracted observation of the ball's actual movements, the associated hippocampal activation is consistent with the concept that the hippocampus participates in a top-down exerted sensory gating mechanism. In this way, it may play a role in novelty (saliency) detection.

The article discusses a potential use of the methods of cognitive modeling in the field of quality of life. The quality of life, as a universal indicator of human self-perception to feel his sense of satisfaction from various parts of his life, is difficult to assess by strictly mathematical methods, so the authors suggest using the cognitive modeling. The quality of life in his estimation for the convenience of research activity is divided into components - indicators of the quality of life. The widespread indicator "quality of life" and the complexity of the development of its assessment methods lead to high relevance of the authors-proposed method.The introduction provides an overview of current approaches to assessing the quality of life. Among all these approaches the most advantageous is an objectively subjective one. The paper gives a brief assessment of cognitive modeling methods, which are, essentially, a way of graphic and structural elements of reflection and relationships in complex systems. As a result of the analysis of existing research in this area, was found the potential for creating cognitive models of the quality of life and its indicators and was defined the place of the proposed method, among others. The paper presents the method itself, as a series of steps, and focuses on the promising opportunities for researchers of the quality of life from its using.Among the possible lines to use cognitive modeling of the life quality indicators can be three main ones: implementation of new methods to assess the quality of life; choice of the most appropriate technique for a particular study among available methods; realization of the cognitive model and numerical experiment, which allows seeing the effect of external factors on the individual indicators of the quality of life. Thus, due to the high relevance and significant benefits from the use of the proposed method, the article is of interest to researchers of the quality of life and its related indicators.The work is partly supported by The Russian Foundation for Basic Research: Grant No14- 07-00116, №16-07-00474.

Tez (Doktora) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2016, Thesis (PhD) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2016, Çevre ve davranış teorileri, insanla çevre arasındaki ilişki ve etkileşimi algı, davranış, bilişim, zihinsel şema gibi kavramlar üzerinden tartışan bir araştırma alanıdır. Gündelik yaşantısında birey, sıklıkla bulunduğu çevreler dahilinde çevreden kaynaklanan uyaranlarla etkileşim kurmasının neticesinde belirli davranış kalıpları geliştirir. Bu bağlamda çevre, bireyin algısal süreçleri ile birlikte davranışları üzerinde etkili olan bir kavram olmakla birlikte bireyin davranışlarında hasıl olan değişiklikler de benzer şekilde çevre üzerinde etkindir. Bireyin gündelik yaşantısında alışkın olduğu çevre ile arasındaki uyumlu etkileşimi sekteye uğratan ve birey adına çevresel değişimi zorunlu kılan bazı dönemler vardır. Bu dönemlerden birisi de bireyin hasta olduğu zaman aralıklarıdır. Zira, bireyin sağlık ve sıhhat düzeyinin uzun süre bozulması, kimi zaman bireyin belirli bir süre boyunca alışkın olduğu çevrenin haricinde farklı bir çevrede bulunmasını ve hatta yatılı olarak tedavi göreceği ve bilmediği yeni bir çevreye dahil olmasını gerektirebilir. Hastalığın birey üzerinde sebep olduğu konfor eksikliği bir yana, adapte olunması gereken yeni bir çevresel bileşen, bireyin söz konusu bu çevreden kaynaklanan bir çevresel baskı yaşamasına neden olur. Yetişkin bireyler için dahi oldukça yıpratıcı olan bu süreç, çocuk bireyler söz konusu olduğunda ise çok daha stresli ve başa çıkılması güç olan bir süreçtir. Zira rutin yaşantısını, ev merkezli bir çevre ile birlikte okul ve rekreasyon alanlarında geçiren çocuklar, belirli bir süre yatarak geçirmek zorunda kaldıkları teşhis ve tedavi çevrelerinde, yeni bir mekan ve bu mekana ait olan sosyal faktörlere de uyum sağlamak zorunda kalır. Çevreyle arasındaki etkileşimi kökünden değişen çocuğun, maruz kaldığı bu çevresel baskı altında, edindiği deneyimin zihninde yeni ve farklı bir takım bilgi işleme süreçlerinin oluşmasına neden olarak yeni bir takım davranış kalıpları geliştirmesi mümkündür. Bu sebeple, yetişkinlere kıyasla özel bir pedagojik yaklaşımla tedavi edilmesi gereken yaşça küçük bireylerin tedavi gördüğü pediyatrik tedavi çevreleri, çocuğu fiziksel, bilişsel, sosyal ve psikolojik ihtiyaçları olan bütüncül bir varlık olarak ele alan çocuk merkezli bir çevre ve mekansal düzende tasarlanması gereken mekanlardır. Bu bağlamda, çocuğun tedavisi süresince, ona birinci dereceden bir yakının refakat etmesi elzem bir koşul olarak öne çıkar. Bununla birlikte, çocuğa refakat eden bireyin de alışkın olduğu çevreden belirli bir süre ve yeni bir gündelik rutin benimsemek ve yeni bir çevreye uyum sağlamak zorunda kaldığı söylenebilir. Dolayısıyla, çocukların tedavi süreleri boyunca refakatçilerle birlikte hemşire, hastabakıcı ve uzman doktor gibi gündelik yaşamda sıklıkla karşılaşmadığı sosyal bileşenlerden kaynaklanan uyaranlar sebebiyle bir takım farklı davranış kalıpları göstermekte oldukları söylenebilir. Dolayısıyla, bu tez kapsamında, araştırmanın ana aktörü olan pediyatri hastasının, birincil mekan olarak uyum sağladığı ev merkezli bir çevrenin dışında adapte olmak zorunda kaldığı ikincil mekan olan pediyatrik teşhis ve tedavi çevrelerinin fiziksel ve sosyal koşullarına bağlı olarak değişen algısı ve bu algısal süreçlerin çocukların bilişsel haritalarına olan etkilerinin araştırılması hedeflenmektedir. Bununla birlikte, tez kapsamında bir tasarım problemi olarak ele alınan pediyatri çevreleri, pediyatri hastaları olarak çocuklarla birlikte refakatçiler ve tez kapsamında ele alınan sağlık profesyönellerinden olan hemşire ve hastabakıcılarla paylaşılan mekanlardır. Zira, farklı fiziksel, duygusal ve sosyal ihtiyaçları olan fakat aynı çevre dahilinde birarada bulunmaları gereken bu üç sosyal grup, kimi zaman aynı mekanları paylaşmak zorunda kalması sebebiyle bu sosyal ve çevresel etkileşimin her sosyal grup üzerinde farklı etkileri olduğu öngörülmüştür. Dolayısıyla tezin kapsamı, tasarım problemi olarak ele alınan bir pediyatri çevresinin fiziksel bileşenleri ile bu çevre dahilinde tedavi gören çocuk ile aynı tedavi çevresini kullanan refakatçiler ile hemşire ve hastabakıcılar arasındaki sosyal etkileşimi ve algısal süreçleri kişisel mekan, mahremiyet, psiko-sosyal alan, sosyo pedal ve sosyofugal mekan kavramları bağlamında irdelemek olarak belirlenmiştir. İrdeleme süreci kapsamında yapılan alan çalışması Cerrahpaşa Hastanesi Pediyatrik Hematoloji ve Onkoloji Servisi’nde, 30 çocuk, 30 refakatçi ile 13 hemşire ve hastabakıcının katılımıyla gerçekleştirilmiş olup, davranış haritaları, bilişsel haritalar ve mekan dizimi yöntemleriyle elde edilen verilerin geçerliliği istatiksel olarak araştırılmıştır. Çocuklara ilişkin elde edilen bilişsel veri ile birlikte farklı sosyal rollere sahip olan üç grubun davranışsal verisi ile, her mekanın sentaktik verileri arasında kurulan korelasyonlar sonucunda, mekanın fiziksel yapısına ilişkin sentaktik verilerin, bireylerin davranışsal ve bilişsel frekansları ile ilişkili olup olmadığı analiz edilmiştir. Tez çalışmasının analizlerinde, üç aşamalı bir metodoloji kullanılmıştır; ilk veri grubu kapsamında pediyatri hastaları, refakatçiler ve hemşire ve hastabakıcılara ilişkin davranışsal frekanslar, ikinci veri grubu kapsamında pediyatri hastalarına ilişkin bilişsel frekanslar elde edilmiştir. Üçüncü veri grubu kapsamında ise mekanın sentaktik değerleri Syntax 2D yazılımı aracılığıyla ortaya konmuştur. Elde edilen bu veriler arasında istatiksel bağlamda anlamlı ilişkiler olup olmadığı, SPSS istatistiksel programı aracılığıyla gerçekleştirilen kikare ve basit regresyon analizleri ile sınanmıştır. Gerçekleştirilen analizlerde ortaya çıkan anlamlı veriler ele alındığında, farklı kullanıcıların davranış haritaları bağlamında, refakatçilerin davranış frekanslarının, hemşire ve hastabakıcılar kadar yüksek olduğu, pediyatri hastalarının davranış frekansının ise en düşük seviyede olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Pediyatri servisinin plan şeması ele alındığında, hemşire istasyonu ve mutfak gibi mekansal bileşenlerin, farklı gruplar tarafından ortak olarak paylaşılan mekanlar olduğu ve sosyal etkileşimin artmasında etkili olan sosyopedal mekan bileşenleri olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Örneğin mutfak mekanı, özellikle refakatçilerin bir taraftan yemek pişirme eylemini sürdürürken, diğer taraftan onların sosyal etkileşimde bulunduğu ve dayanışmanın arttığı ailevi bir mekandır. Bir diğer sonuç, pediyatri hastalarının zamanlarının büyük bir bölümünü geçirdikleri hasta odalarının, onların serviste aidiyet kurdukları mekanlar olarak bağlandıkları, hobi gereçleri, kişisel eşyalar ve eğitsel faaliyetlerde ürettikleri ürünleri enstale ederek kişiselleştirme çabası gösterdikleri mekanlar olduğu söylenebilir. Bu sebeple, hasta odaları, çocuklar bağlamında, onların yeni adapte oldukları günlük rutinin ve çevrenin yeni referans noktası olarak kabul edilebilir. Hasta odaları ve koridor arasında yer alan pencerelerin, çocukları mekanda gerçekleşen eylemleri takip edebilmelerini ve çevrelerini algılayabilmelerini sağlayan etkili bir görsel bir iletişim aracı olduğunun tespit edilmesinin yanı sıra, pencereler sebebiyle çocukların sürekli olarak gözlem altında olma halinin ise, çocukların mahremiyet, kişisel ve psikososyal alanlarını tehdit edici bir unsur olduğu saptanmıştır. Çocuklar bağlamında en yüksek davranışsal frekansın oyun odası kapsamında ortaya çıkmış olması, çocukların yatarak tedavi gördüğü bu süre boyunca, sosyal etkileşime anlamlı miktarda ihtiyaçları olduğu gösteren önemli bir sonuçtur. Oyun mekanının refakatçilerin davranış haritalarında da oldukça yüksek bir frekansa sahip olması ise, bu mekanın hem çocuklar hem de diğer kullanıcı grupları arasındaki etkileşimi arttıran sosyopedal bir mekan olduğunu göstermektedir. Bununla birlikte, alan çalışmasının yürütüldüğü servisin plan şemasının merkezde yer alan tek koridorlu bir plan şemasına sahip olmasının, çocukların bilişsel haritalarında yüksek frekansta hatırlanmasında etkili olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Bu bağlamda, plan şemasının anlaşılabilir bir kurguya sahip olması (intelligibility), çocukların bilişsel haritalarında etkin bir faktör olduğu analizlerle de desteklenmektedir. Öte yandan koridor elemanının, farklı sosyal grupların davranış modlarının kesiştiği bir mekansal bileşen olduğu saptanmıştır. Çocuklar, koridoru, bir baştan bir başa yürümek suretiyle hem bir egzersiz, hem de diğer kullanıcılarla sohbet alanı olarak kullanırken, refakatçiler, bu mekanı diğer refakatçilerle sohbet etme, telefon görüşmelerini yapma ve hasta odaları enfeksiyon riski sebebiyle ziyarete açık olmadığından, ziyaretçilerini ağırlama amacıyla kullanmaktadır. Hemşire ve hastabakıcılar ise koridoru, sağlık takibini yaptıkları odalara ulaşma, refakatçilere bilgi aktarma, uzman doktorlarla bilgi alışverişinde bulunma ve çocuklarla küçük sohbetler yapma amacıyla kullanmaktadırlar. Bu sebeple koridor, tüm kullanıcılar bağlamında, sosyal etkileşim ve dayanışmanın kesişimi olan bir mekandır., Environment and behavior theories are a research area in which the relationships and interactions between individuals and the environment are studied through perception, behavior, cognition and cognitive schema. Individuals gather environmental stimuli through visual, audial, olfactory and tactile senses, and convert this sensual data into behavior patterns via cognitive schemata. This kind of information processing is defined as a learning mechanism that depends on physical, cognitive and sensual development reaching a multiple perception and learning level. Additionaly, this information processing is also affected by the individual’s sociocultural phenomenon; people also tend to demonstrate behaviours dependent on societial norms since social habits have the potential to shape the environment from the smallest house to the largest urban scale. Briefly, individuals, in their daily routines, develop certain kinds of behaviors through interactions with stimuli from their environment. In this manner, the environment and individual behaviors have an effect on each other. However, some periods interrupt the harmonious interaction between individuals and the daily environment, forcing individuals to implement a required environmental change. Illness is one of the times that require individuals to go beyond their ordinary lives. Sickness, as an irregularity of well-being, may necessarily require the person to be treated as an in-patient and enter an unrecognized environment. Both the lack of convenience and the difference of environment that are supposed to be adapted have an impact on the individual’s experience, causing environmental press originated by the environment. Considering that adults find long-term treatment periods greatly depressing, it can be stated that they are extremely upsetting for children. Since children are accustomed to spending their daily routines in such spaces like school and recreational areas nearby their homes, they feel obliged to adapt to new spaces and social factors as they pursue their treatment progress. So, it seems possible that novel information processing procedures and original types of behaviour patterns may result from the dissimilar experiences of children who are exposed to a high level of environmental pressure. For this reason, pediatric healthcare spaces, where children are taken care of, are supposed to be designed through a holistic pedagogical approach, handling children as living beings with physical, social and psychological needs. It is necessary for environments used by children to be designed in a child-centered approach. Therefore, it is crucial that close relatives attend to the children because, depending on their age, they may likely lack the ability to care for themselves. However, the accompaniment of children may also bring about some other difficulties for the accompanying person. The companion also enters into the necessary requirement to embrace a distinct routine different from daily life, adjust to a new space, and interact with diverse individuals, including other suffering children accompanied by their relatives in addition to medical professionals. So, both the children and their companions enter into different sociophysical settings, including unordinary environmental stimuli imposed on them to behave in a different manner. In addition, this study found that the environmental dynamics and physical conditions of healthcare services are not only stressful for the in-patients and their companions, but also for the medical professionals and nurses. Nurses who have a field of responsibility, including long working hours and night duties, also need the preservation of their personal space and privacy while they have a rest or their meals. They also need to socialize with their colleagues during their work shifts. Thus, within this study, as physical conditions of healthcare environments probably have an influence on the perceptual processes, experiences and behaviours of nurses, this study also examines these kinds of interactions. Accordingly, the thesis is based on the investigation of the effects of the perceptual processes of children who are mainly attached to their home environments as their primary setting but required to adapt to a pediatric healthcare service as a secondary setting to their cognitive maps. Additionally, as the scope of this thesis handles these kinds of pediatric environments as a design problem of the spaces that companions and nurses share together with children, the pediatric in-patients. As three different social groups with various physical, emotional and social needs are required to live together in the pediatric service, it is proposed that each social group is influenced differently through these social and environmental interactions. Therefore, the main aim of the thesis is to examine the sociobehavioral and perceptual processes between the physical components of a pediatric healthcare service and the social actors of the pediatric environment within the context of private space, privacy, territory, sociopedal and sociofugal spaces. Within the context of this investigation, the case study area is the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology Service of the Cerrahpasa Hospital of Istanbul University with the participation of 30 children, 30 companions of the children, and 13 nurses, which is the total number of those giving care at the service. The behavioral and cognitive data is gathered; analysed through a triple methodology of cognitive maps, bahavior maps and space syntax; and evaluated statistically to find any significant outcomes through chi-square and regression analyses. Through chi-square correlations, the study searches for any significance between independent factors such as age, gender and time elapsed in the hospital for each social group and their behavioral and cognitive frequencies. Through regression correlations, the study checks for any significance between the behavioral and cognitive frequencies of each spatial component and syntactic values of the service. Depending on these evaluations, the study analyses whether the syntactic values of the present physical conditions of the plan layout relate to behavioral frequencies of the individuals acting in the pediatric setting and the cognitive maps of children. Following the introduction section, the second section introduces such ideas as perception, behaviour, cognitive schema, and cognitive maps within the scope of environment and behaviour theories, and transitions to the topic of environmental perception of pediatric in-patient. In this manner, it is intended to uncover the contrast between two different settings; the primary setting is the home environment where children feel the greatest attachment and the secondary setting is the healthcare environment which children are getting used to within a particular time they have spent in this setting. By initiating such a debate about the contrast between the two settings, the concepts of environmental press, personal space and privacy together with the concept of social interaction are introduced, as the social actors of the setting also impact the behavior patterns in the healthcare service. The third section focuses on the design parameters of pediatric healthcare centers; it covers the change of block design of healthcare centers throughout history, the evolution of pediatric hospitals through the influence of child-centered design and the transformation of the plan layout and spatial components of pediatric units. In addition, some examples of national and international pediatric healthcare centers are presented to give the reader an opportunity to compare the physical conditions of the settings. The fourth section covers the methodology of the study, giving attention to the introduction of the plan layout together with its spatial components, the characteristics of the participants who contribute to the study, how the case study is executed step by step, how the data is collected and how the collected data is correlated. In the fifth section, the results and outcomes of the correlations resulting from chi-square and regression analyses are explained by emphasizing any significance. In the sixth section, the evaluations and results are combined with any personal observations that have been evaluated cumulatively to discuss within the framework of the scope and aim of the study. In addition, it is also intended to make some proposals and recommendations regarding the design characteristics of a pediatric healthcare setting in order to meet the physical and social needs of different social groups that have participated into this study. Regarding the results, companions are found to be as active as the nurses in the pediatric unit when considering the behavior maps, and the lowest frequency is found to belong to the group of children. Within the plan layout, some spatial components such as the nurse station and kitchen are the shared spaces of different social groups, which increases the social interaction between individuals as sociopedal spaces. The kitchen, for instance, is a space where companions carry out cooking actions together with strengthening their social bonds, which makes kitchen areas a familial space. Patient rooms are found to be sociofugal spaces and reflections of the childrens’ home environments as they are observed to put a great effort to personalize their rooms with their personal belongings, hobby materials, etc. in order to increase their place attachment. Therefore, patient rooms can be evaluated as the new reference points of their lately adapted environment and daily routine. The windows establishing visual communication between the patient rooms and corridor are found to have a significant influence on children in understanding their physical environment, but also these windows are observed to be disturbing, harming their privacy, personal and territorial space. The maximum behavioral frequency of children exists in the playroom, showing that children have a high need to interact socially with others living in the same setting. Therefore, the playrooms in pediatric settings can be evaluated as sociopedal spaces that increase the social interaction between individuals. According to the implemented case study, however, it is recommended to give some free spaces within the design of recreational spaces in pediatric healthcare environments for different age groups of children so that every age group may find an appropriate activity. In addition, one corridor plan type pediatric units, about which the case study has been performed, is determined to have strong intelligibility within the cognitive maps of children as the corridor carries the maximum amount of cognitive frequency. Also, the corridor is quite an intersecting spatial component regarding behavioral frequencies of three social groups, going beyond its basic spatial function of circulation. While pediatric in-patients use the corridor as a place to walk end-to-end and socially interact with others, companions use the corridor in order to have conversations with other companions, to have phone conversations, and to welcome visitors, especially when they are not allowed to enter patient rooms to prevent the risk of infection; the nurses use the corridor mainly to reach all of the patient rooms to give care to the patients, give directions to companions, and have little chats, especially with the children. So, the corridor is a place where social interaction overflows from the thresholds of the patient rooms having a supplementary, valuable social meaning for all individuals using the pediatric setting., Doktora, PhD

Remarkable progress has occurred over the years in the performance evaluation of bank branches. Even though financial measures are usually considered the most important in assessing branch viability, we posit that insufficient attention has been given to other factors that affect the branches’ potential profitability and attractiveness, such as: location features, trade area characteristics and facilities management. Based on the integrated use of cognitive maps and multiple criteria decision analysis, we propose a framework that adds value to the way that potential attractiveness criteria to assess bank branches are selected and to the way that the trade-offs among those criteria are obtained. This framework is the result of a process involving several directors from the five largest banks operating in Portugal, and follows a constructivist approach. Our findings suggest that the use of cognitive maps systematically identifies previously omitted criteria that may assess potential attractiveness. The use of multiple criteria techniques clarify and add transparency to the way trade-offs are dealt with. Advantages and disadvantages of the proposed framework are also discussed. First Publish Online: 2 Oct 2012

Este artigo relata em que medida homens e mulheres se diferenciam quanto ao estilo cognitivo de sistematização e à habilidade de construção de mapas cognitivos. Participaram da pesquisa 214 pessoas (57% mulheres) de João Pessoa (PB), com idade média de 29,3 anos. Elas foram requeridas a listar as Unidades da Federação (UFs) e capitais brasileiras, indicar em mapa esquemático as UFs do país, estimar as distâncias entre capitais e responder o quociente de sistematização. Os resultados indicaram que homens e mulheres se diferenciam em relação ao número de acertos entre capitais e à pontuação em sistematização; em média, os homens apresentam mais acertos e são mais sistematizadores. Em relação à estimativa de distâncias, verificou-se uma configuração espacial mais adequada para as pessoas do sexo masculino. Concluindo, o sexo e o estilo cognitivo de sistematização influenciam a construção de mapas cognitivos. This study examined the extent to which men and women differ regarding systemizing and construction of cognitive maps. Participants were 214 people (57% women) from João Pessoa (Brazil), with mean age of 29.3 years. They were asked to list the Brazilian Federation Unities (BFUs) and their capitals, to indicate in a sketch map the BFUs, to estimate the distances between capitals, and to answer the systemizing quotient test and demographic questions. Results showed that men and women differ with respect to the number of BFUs-capital correctly listed, and on the systemizing score, with men showing more right answers and being more systemizing than women. Men and women did not differ in locating the BFUs in the map, but men had more correct answers overall. In terms of distance estimation once again men showed better spatial representation than women. These findings indicate the influence of sex and systematizing on the representation of cognitive maps.

World Conference on Design, Arts and Education (DAE) -- MAY 01-04, 2012 -- Antalya, TURKEY, WOS: 000316256000100, Being basic concern of urban design education, urban space, can be defined as a livable and perceivable multi-dimensional place that is also has time content. It is formed by buildings, perceived by city-dwellers and has many inter-related urban activities in it. After researches, it can be seen that there has been many approaches that form a basis for urban design education. Among these approaches, this study focuses on cognitive and psychological approaches of urban space which have a great importance in urban design. From this point of view, because of affecting human behavior and activities and considerably important for giving clues to urban designers, the concepts of perceiving space, image ability, spatial legibility and cognitive maps that concretize these mental images or in other words turned these images into drawings were defined in the study. Subject of the study was evaluated within objective and subjective viewpoints. This study chose Selcuk University Campus as a sample area in which we work as an educator and which is the living space of many students. The aim of the study is to find out the undergraduate students' perceptions and images related to Campus Area in which the students gain experiences every day and in accordance with the results to obtain design clues for Selcuk University Campus Area. For attaining this goal, we searched how the spatial image changes by students' individual perception? Which spaces in the area are more easily-remembered than the others? Which are preferable and admirable spaces or not for students? Sampling ratio of the study is approximately %15 (30 undergraduate students) within the students who took an urban design education and live in the campus area. Producing cognitive maps of these students and interpreting them by using Kevin Lynch's (1960) 'cognitive urban image' and Jack L. Nasar's (1997) 'evaluative urban image' elements are the methods of the study. In conclusion; after obtaining and analyzing the cognitive maps, we got some important design clues to produce successful urban spacesfor Selcuk University Campus Area. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Ayse Cakir Ilhan

The aim of personalized maps is to help individual users to read maps and focus on the most task-relevant information. Several approaches have been suggested to develop personalized maps for cities, but few consider the spatial knowledge of its users. We propose the design of “cognitively-aware” personalized maps, which take into account the previous experience of users in the city and how the urban space is configured in their minds. Our aim is to facilitate users’ mental links between maps and city places, stimulating users to recall features of the urban space and to assimilate new spatial knowledge. To achieve this goal, we propose the personalization of maps through a map design process based on user modeling and on inferring personalization guidelines from hand-drawn sketches of urban spaces. We applied this process in an experiment with tourists in Madrid, Spain. We categorized the participants into three types of tourists—“Guided”, “Explorer”, and “Conditioned”—according to individual and contextual factors that can influence their spatial knowledge of the city. We also extracted design guidelines from tourists’ sketches and developed map prototypes. The empirical results seem to be promising for developing personalized city maps that could be produced on-the-fly in the future., ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 7 (8), ISSN:2220-9964

Critical facility vulnerability assessment is a highly complex strategic activity in combating the terrorism and necessitates a structured quantified methodology to support the decision-making process in defense planning. In the system perspective, the critical facility, such as airport, dam, governmental facility, harbor, nuclear power plant, oil plant etc., can be defined as a system that relies on a group of different interdependent logical and physical entities as system functions and system components. The aim of this paper is to present a realistic approach to determine the vulnerability of such a system defended against the terrorist attack under multiple criteria which can be both qualitative and quantitative by considering these interdependencies. The proposed approach, called fuzzy integrated vulnerability assessment model (FIVAM), is based on fuzzy set theory, Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) methodology in a group decision-making environment. The FIVAM approach is presented step-by-step and applied to a simple case study on airport vulnerability assessment. The results of the application are compared to those observed through a classical vulnerability assessment model to illustrate the effectiveness of the FIVAM. Furthermore, FIVAM provides a framework to identify the hidden vulnerabilities caused by the functional interdependencies within the system. The results also show that FIVAM quantifies the vulnerability of the system, system functions and system components, and determines the most critical functions and components by simulating the system behavior. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Este artigo analisa os fatores de influência na implementação de uma estratégia no ambiente hospitalar. Tal estratégia é a implementação do Time de Resposta Rápida em unidades de internação, buscando qualidade e segurança na assistência ao paciente hospitalizado. A escolha baseou-se em analisar uma estratégia que tivesse gerado resultados positivos para a instituição em estudo. O trabalho utilizou-se de pesquisa qualitativa de caráter exploratório, sendo um Estudo de Caso único, realizado em um hospital privado de Porto Alegre (RS). Foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade e também foram aplicados Mapas Cognitivos Causais. Como resultados da pesquisa, o fator diferencial identificado que determinou o sucesso da implementação do Time de Resposta Rápida foi o componente humano. Tal processo em estudo também teve êxito pela congregação de múltiplos fatores que se tornaram facilitadores para garantir esse sucesso. Como contribuição acadêmica, o Mapeamento Cognitivo traz uma possibilidade para compreender-se melhor o pensamento dos níveis hierárquicos no processo da estratégia. This paper analyses the factors affecting the implementation of a strategy within the hospital environment. Such strategy is the implementation of the Quick Response Team in hospitalization units, pursuing quality and safe services to the patient. The choice was based in the analysis of a strategy rendering positive results to the studied institution. A qualitative exploratory research was used, being a single case study within a private hospital located at Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In-Depth interviews and Causal Cognitive Maps were applied. The research results have shown that the differential factor determining the implementation success of the Quick Response Team was the human component. The studied process was also successful due to the confluence of multiple factors, which have become facilitators to assure such a success. As an academic contribution, the Cognitive Mapping brings an opportunity to better understanding the hierarchic levels when thinking about the strategy process.

This study is an attempt to understand how the dimensions of the strategy process (change, thinking and formation) are present in strategists’ minds. The methodology used is exploratory-descriptive. During the exploratory stage, we carried out desk research, which resulted in the development of a measurement tool for the strategy process. For the descriptive stage, we conducted a virtual survey of a sample of 109 executives of different companies. The data obtained were submitted to multivariate analysis (factor analysis and structural equations modeling). The factors that formed the studied dimensions were identified, confirming the existence of paradoxes in the strategy process. The dependence relations and the correlations observed were used as an input for the construction of a model for the strategy process.

The increasing scope and speed of biological invasions around the world is a major concern of the modern environmental conservation movement. Although many ecological impacts of biological invasions are still not well understood, there is a general consensus that exotic, invasive species are a primary driver of extinctions globally. By altering ecosystem structure and function, invasive species also affect human quality of life; however, not all impacts lead to negative outcomes. Given that invasive species have diverse impacts on society, their management in human-dominated landscapes is a wicked problem wherein the resolution is as much an issue of social value as technical capacity. The purpose of my research was to understand the propensity for engaging private landowners in an effort to eradicate an invasive species on an inhabited island. Specifically, I investigated private landowner perspectives on eradicating the North American beaver (Castor canadensis) from the Tierra del Fuego (TDF) island archipelago in Argentina and Chile. The beaver was introduced in 1946 and has since become a central conservation issue due to its long-lasting changes to local hydrology, nutrient cycling, riparian vegetation, food webs, and aquatic and terrestrial species assemblages. Because eradication requires near complete cooperation from stakeholders and no research had been conducted to understand the perspectives or willingness of private landowners to cooperate, my objectives were to: 1) characterize the links private landowners make between the presence of beavers and impacts to the ecosystem services in their riparian areas, and 2) explore the role of a market-based incentive program to increase landowner cooperation in eradication efforts. Through semi-structured interviews, I elicited landowner mental models of how beavers impact the ecosystem services they receive from their riparian lands. I found that TDF ranchers prioritized provisioning ecosystem services, and held diverse and idiosyncratic beliefs about how beavers influence these outcomes. TDF ranchers may not recognize the beaver as a highly salient problem because they do not connect them to reductions in ecosystem services that are important to them. Among those who do perceive beavers affecting important ecosystem services, there is no clear, unified understanding of how the beavers disturb the ecosystem and key ecosystem services. Additionally, in a broadly administered survey, I used a factorial vignettes to examine the role of program structure and other program-related factors on landowners' willingness to participate in a voluntary eradication program. Overall, landowners were willing to cooperate in an incentive program to eradicate beavers. They were positively motivated by greater financial compensation, an increased expectation that the program would be successful, and the program assuming full responsibility for its implementation. Other factors returned mixed results indicating that further research may be required. In diverse, human-inhabited, and privately-owned landscapes, conservation requires collective action—i.e., the high threshold of participation needed for eradication to be achieved. Understanding the knowledge systems that cause landowners to perceive value or risk serves as a first step in understanding behaviors, and can also serve as a framework for crafting more effective outreach, as current communication about the beaver and the proposed eradication may not resonate with private landowners. Further, barriers to inaction can be overcome by understanding landowner needs and how program-related factors influence the potential for cooperation. In sum, by putting human needs at the forefront of program design, conservation planners can better understand stakeholder perspectives, reduce barriers to participation, and ultimately increase cooperation and improve conservation outcomes. Master of Science