Discussion: Science symposium on navigation in Cambridge MA on Nov 14 2014
in: Orienteering; General
Nov 6, 2014 4:31 PM
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barb:
The public is invited to a science symposium about navigation at Radcliffe Institute on Friday Nov 14, 2014. The event is free and open to the public. For details and to register, please visit https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2014-lost-...
The symposium goes from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and registration is required.
Note that the symposium will be webcast live (no registration required for that), and videos will be available afterward.
Topics will include:
* neuroscience and cognitive psychology
* animal navigation
* human culture and navigation
* lost person behavior
* technology and the future
The symposium goes from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, and registration is required.
Note that the symposium will be webcast live (no registration required for that), and videos will be available afterward.
Topics will include:
* neuroscience and cognitive psychology
* animal navigation
* human culture and navigation
* lost person behavior
* technology and the future
Nov 7, 2014 4:23 AM
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barb:
John Huth told me he has some student who was on the Italian orienteering team. I said, um..., is it..., Giacomo???
Nov 10, 2014 12:44 PM
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barb:
We have prepared a poster to present at the symposium. THIS IS A DRAFT. Comments welcome.
Link to draft poster
This was prepared in a hurry - we did not know about the opportunity until a couple days ago and started the poster prep last night.
I need to get permission to use the maps and frankly I don't even remember what the first map is from. Does fair use cover this? Regardless would like to get permission.
Link to draft poster
This was prepared in a hurry - we did not know about the opportunity until a couple days ago and started the poster prep last night.
I need to get permission to use the maps and frankly I don't even remember what the first map is from. Does fair use cover this? Regardless would like to get permission.
Nov 11, 2014 2:36 AM
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I'd be happy to ask the NEOC Board to approve permission at the meeting on Wednesday; I'm sure they will have no problem with it. Likewise, I can't imagine CSU would be anything but enthusiastic. I have no idea where the first map is from, though the ISOM overprinting (black over purple) doesn't suggest local events.
Nov 11, 2014 3:12 AM
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Barb, the first map image seems to come from a blog article; if you hover over it mentions PlanetFear and Loxley... searching on that led me to its source.
I think Fair Use would cover its use here anyway as you aren't planning to sell the poster or provide access to the mapped area.
I think Fair Use would cover its use here anyway as you aren't planning to sell the poster or provide access to the mapped area.
Nov 14, 2014 2:10 PM
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barb:
Some of the organizations represented here:
Dartmouth College Outdoor Program
Outward Bound
Coast Guard
Dartmouth College Outdoor Program
Outward Bound
Coast Guard
Nov 14, 2014 2:12 PM
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barb:
John Huth intro. He teaches a Harvard course on primitive navigation. Wrote book "Lost Art of Finding Our Way". See special display at Harvard Coop - with other books related to navigation.
Nov 15, 2014 2:56 AM
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Thanks for sharing. Very interesting, especially about using pulsars for an inter-galactic GPS system. I'm surprised that orienteering was not discussed during the program. What was the system that Mr. Bray talked about that created addresses in undeveloped countries?
Nov 15, 2014 3:36 AM
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Great symposium, coverage and plug for orienteering. How many takers did you get, Barb?
Nov 15, 2014 5:00 AM
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Dartmouth College Outdoor Programs is the Dept. that will be involved with NAOC 2016
Nov 15, 2014 12:10 PM
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Thanks for the notes, Barb.
Liked the SAR lecture's list of steps in getting lost. Reminded me of last Saturday's control #3.
Liked the SAR lecture's list of steps in getting lost. Reminded me of last Saturday's control #3.
Nov 17, 2014 3:05 PM
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barb:
Reposted from my log:
At the symposium on Friday, researchers tossed around the terms "good navigator" and "bad navigator". One way they determined who was who:
Santa Barbara sense-of-direction scale
Hegarty et al 2002, "Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability," Intelligence 30:425-447.
Email me if you're interested in reading the article and do not have access.
Scoring: https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/hegarty/mary/sites/lab...
The recommended scoring procedure for the scale is to first reverse score the positively phrased items. This ensures that all items are coded such that a high number indicates more ability and a low number indicates less ability. The items that should be reverse scored are items 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 14. After reverse scoring, then sum the scores for all of the items together, and then divide the total by the number of items (15) to compute the overall score for the scale (average score across items). Using this technique, the score will be a number between 1 and 7 where the higher the score, the better the perceived sense of direction. Using this SPSS syntax will ensure proper scoring.
Tests of spatial skill
Particularly enjoyable: Topo map assessment (Except for the computer generated 3D images which I find annoying)
My questions:
More papers I would like to read:
Back to Santa Barbara.
Thoughts on answering the survey questions myself: I feel that I am good at map-reading and spatial reasoning -- but that there is also an attentional component for me. I'm not necessarily constantly aware of my surroundings, subconsciously. For example, if I'm the passenger with a friend driving me somewhere, I'm probably focused on the conversation with the friend and could easily pay no attention to the route we're taking. And then there's the question of remembering where I put stuff - I'm terrible at that. So I think there are different aspects to spatial cognition, and the survey kind of mashes them all together.
At the symposium on Friday, researchers tossed around the terms "good navigator" and "bad navigator". One way they determined who was who:
Santa Barbara sense-of-direction scale
Hegarty et al 2002, "Development of a self-report measure of environmental spatial ability," Intelligence 30:425-447.
Email me if you're interested in reading the article and do not have access.
Scoring: https://labs.psych.ucsb.edu/hegarty/mary/sites/lab...
The recommended scoring procedure for the scale is to first reverse score the positively phrased items. This ensures that all items are coded such that a high number indicates more ability and a low number indicates less ability. The items that should be reverse scored are items 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 14. After reverse scoring, then sum the scores for all of the items together, and then divide the total by the number of items (15) to compute the overall score for the scale (average score across items). Using this technique, the score will be a number between 1 and 7 where the higher the score, the better the perceived sense of direction. Using this SPSS syntax will ensure proper scoring.
Tests of spatial skill
Particularly enjoyable: Topo map assessment (Except for the computer generated 3D images which I find annoying)
My questions:
- Are these abilities learnable?
- How would you teach children so they gain this sense of direction?
- Does a sense of direction correlate with other cognitive abilities?
- Does teaching children to orienteer help them to think and learn?
- If so, how can we measure and prove that?
More papers I would like to read:
- Review article on spatial navigation ability. Link
- Mental rotation and perspective-taking are distinct spatial abilities (2001). Link
- People do research on Presence (2007). Link
- How do researchers assess spatial knowledge acquisition from direct experience in the environment? (2006). Link
- Back to the discredited science of phrenology? Link Bigger hippocampus --> better mental map-making. On the other hand, Maguire showed that you can grow your hippocampus with intensive study of the terrain and maps.
- Research with kids and maps, with hints of possible educational interventions. Link
- Electrical stimulation of your brain might help you navigate better. Link
- Cognitive mapping in humans and its relationship to other orientation skills (2012). Link
- If you want to study a map prior to running on new terrain, should you sleep on it? Link
- People worry that GPS navigation is making us all dumber - we blindly follow the instructions of the machine without understanding the big picture. Here is an idea for having the wayfinders train the user, increasing their spatial awareness while giving directions. Link
- What strategies are useful for working with children who have mental disorders? In this paper, they find that kids with autism spectrum disorder are less interested in exploring their environment - unless there is a game-like goal. Link
- Not sure I agree with the first sentence of the abstract (what about bees' dances?), but interesting nonetheless. Children as young as 4 have natural abilities to read maps. Here they do experiments with kids and maps, and distinguish between abiltiies to represent distance and angle. Link
- Oo! Oo! "Trace Logan and Tom Lowrie argue that while little attention is given to visual imagery and spatial reasoning within the Australian Curriculum, a significant proportion of NAPLAN tasks require high levels of visuospatial reasoning. This article includes teaching ideas to promote visuospatial reasoning in the primary classroom." Link
Back to Santa Barbara.
Thoughts on answering the survey questions myself: I feel that I am good at map-reading and spatial reasoning -- but that there is also an attentional component for me. I'm not necessarily constantly aware of my surroundings, subconsciously. For example, if I'm the passenger with a friend driving me somewhere, I'm probably focused on the conversation with the friend and could easily pay no attention to the route we're taking. And then there's the question of remembering where I put stuff - I'm terrible at that. So I think there are different aspects to spatial cognition, and the survey kind of mashes them all together.
Nov 19, 2014 5:34 PM
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barb:
Article about how the difference between good and bad navigators is their ability to grok permanence.
Dec 2, 2014 4:01 PM
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barb:
Navigation Lecture SeriesGood Vibrations: How Tactile Cues Can Assist Navigation
TODAY, December 2 | 5:00 PM
Sheerr Room, Fay House, Radcliffe Institute
10 Garden Street, Cambridge MA, USA
Lynette A. Jones, senior research scientist, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tactile displays that use an array of small vibrating motors to stimulate the skin have been developed for a variety of purposes, including providing spatial cues to assist in navigation and as sensory substitution systems for those with visual, auditory, or vestibular impairments. In this talk, Jones will discuss the development and evaluation of tactile communication systems used to assist in navigation and to help maintain spatial orientation.
Read more about the speaker and topic: www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2014-lynette-a-jon....
TODAY, December 2 | 5:00 PM
Sheerr Room, Fay House, Radcliffe Institute
10 Garden Street, Cambridge MA, USA
Lynette A. Jones, senior research scientist, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tactile displays that use an array of small vibrating motors to stimulate the skin have been developed for a variety of purposes, including providing spatial cues to assist in navigation and as sensory substitution systems for those with visual, auditory, or vestibular impairments. In this talk, Jones will discuss the development and evaluation of tactile communication systems used to assist in navigation and to help maintain spatial orientation.
Read more about the speaker and topic: www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2014-lynette-a-jon....
This discussion thread is closed.