Juval Portugali

Information and Self-Organization

The process of “self-organization” takes place in open and complex systems that acquire spatio-temporal or functional structures without specific ordering instructions from the outside. [...]

The construction of cognitive maps

The Construction of Cognitive Maps: An Introduction J. Portugali. Part One: Theoretical Frameworks. Inter-representation Networks and Cognitive Mappings J. Portugali. Synergetics, Inter-representation Networks and Cognitive Maps H. Haken, J. Portugali. Connectionism and Neural Networks. Neural Network Models of Cognitive Maps S. Gopal. Connectionist Models in Spatial Cognition T. Ghiselli-Crippa, et al. The Ecological Approach. The Ecological Approach to Navigation: A Gibsonian Perspective H. Heft. Experiential Realism. Verbal Directions for Way-Finding: Space, Cognition and Language H. Couclelis. Part Two: Transformations. From Visual Information to Cognitive Maps. Vision: From Visual Information to Cognitive Maps J. Sholl. Constructing Cognitive Maps with Orientation Biases R. Lloyd, R. Cammack. Cognitive Maps by Visually Impaired People. Cognitive Mapping and Wayfinding by Adults Without Vision R.G. Golledge, et al. The Construction of Cognitive Maps by Children with Visual Impairments S. Ungar, et al. From Language to Cognitive Maps. Language as a Means of Constructing and Conveying Cognitive Maps N. Franklin. Modes of Linearization in the Description of Spatial Configurations M.-P. Daniel, et al. Part Three: Specific Themes. Spatial Reasoning. Modeling Directional Knowledge and Reasoning in Environmental Space: Testing Qualitative Metrics D.R. Montello, A.U. Frank. Cognitive Mapping and Culture. Mapping as a Cultural Universal D. Stea, et al. Subject Index.

Spatial cognitive dissonance and sociospatial emergence in a self-organizing city

By conceiving the city as a self-organizing system, we highlight and examine three interrelated phenomena of residential sociospatial segregation in a city: the gap which exists between intentions, preferences, and motives, on the one hand, and actual spatial behavior, on the other; the existence and role of local regions of instability within an otherwise stable urban system; and the conjunction between these two phenomena and the processes related to the emergence of new sociospatial entities. We examine the interplay between these interrelated urban phenomena and illustrate their role in urban dynamics. The discussion throughout the paper is elaborated partly by reference to empirical evidences but mainly by means of ‘city games’ played on a heuristic model (City-2) designed specifically for this purpose. City-2 can be described as a two-layer model composed of a migration submodel, which describes the intercity and intracity migration movements, superimposed on a cellular automata (CA) submodel describing the dynamics of the urban landscape itself. City-2 elaborates on, and extends, two previous heuristic models designed by us: (a) City, which is a probabilistic CA simulation model designed to examine the sociospatial relations between large social groups in a city, and (b) City-1, a planning-oriented cell-space model which introduced, in addition to the sociocultural properties of individuals, their economic status and the changing land value surface of the city.

Complexity Theory as a Link between Space and Place

Since the early 1970s, the notions of space and place have been located on the two sides of a barricade that divides what has been described as sciences two great cultures. Space is located among the ‘hard’ sciences as a central term in the attempt of geography to transform the discipline from a descriptive into a quantitative, analytic, and thus scientific, enterprise. Place, on the other hand, is located among the ‘soft’ humanities and social philosophy oriented social sciences as an important notion in the post-1970 attempt to transform geography from a positivistic into a humanistic, structuralist, hermeneutic, critical science. More recently, the place-oriented geographies have adopted postmodern, poststructuralist, and deconstruction approaches, while the quantitative spatial geographies have been strongly influenced by theories of self-organization and complexity. In this paper I first point to, and then explore, structural similarities between complexity theories and theories oriented toward social philosophy. I then elaborate the thesis that, in consequence, complexity theories have the potential to bridge the geographies of space and place and, by implication, the two cultures of science. Finally, discuss in some detail conceptual and methodological implications.

The face of the city is its information

Abstract What is it in the externally represented face of the city that makes it recognizable and imaginable? What makes some urban elements and artifacts more legible and better remembered than others? Or put more generally: What makes an object an external representation and what makes it better perceived and/or remembered? Our answer to all these questions is “the information they embody and convey”. Some elements, including those that compose the face of the city, are quantitatively and qualitatively more informative than others and are therefore more legible and better perceived and remembered, quantitatively, in terms of Shannons theory of information (The Mathematical Theory of Communication, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL, 1949), and qualitatively in terms of Hakens (Information and Self-organization: a Macroscopic Approach to Complex Systems, Springer, Heidelberg, 1988/2000) notion of semantic information. In this paper, we elaborate on this point of view in three steps: In the first, we introduce Shannonian information and show how it can be used to define the amount of information externally represented in different urban elements. In the second, we show how this is related to processes of grouping and categorization that give meaning to the face of the city and thus form its semantic information. In the third, we discuss implications for cognition in general and for cognitive mapping in particular.

Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age

Introduction.- Part I: Complexity theories and Complexity Theories of Cities: An Overview.- Part II: Aspects of Cities as Complex Systems.- Part III: Implications to Urban Planning and Design.

Self-Organizing Cities

Self-organization, that is to say, the phenomena by which a system self-organizes its internal structure independent of external causes, is a fundamental property, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, of open and complex systems. Such systems exhibit also phenomena of nonlinearity, instability, fractal structures and chaos — phenomena which are intimately related to the general sensation of life and urbanism at the end of the 20th century. On the other hand, self-organization is a formal theory. It is, in fact, a general umbrella for several theoretical approaches which, while agreeing on general principles, differ in their treatment of such systems, in the emphasis they give to the various processes and properties, and in the subject matters they refer to. In this chapter I discuss some of those theories and methodologies of self-organization which were applied to the domain of cities and urbanism. The discussion proceeds under the title of seven categories of cities which are related to general theories or specific methodologies: dissipative cities, synergetic cities, chaotic cities, fractal cities, cellular automata cities, sand-pile cities, and FACS & IRN cities. The discussion of each category of cities starts with a short introduction to the general principles of the approach and then elaborates its self-organizing city. However, before starting with the self-organizing cities let us say a few introductory words about self-organization as a general theory.

INTER-REPRESENTATION NETWORKS AND COGNITIVE MAPS

The notion of Inter-Representation Networks (IRN) suggests that the cognitive system in general, and the one associated with cognitive maps in particular, extend beyond the individual’s mind/brain into the external environment. Accordingly, the cognitive system is perceived as composed of elements in the mind/brain, internally representing the external environment, and elements in the environment, externally representing the mind. The dynamics of cognitive processes and the construction of cognitive maps is interpreted as a complex interaction between these internal and external representations. While this view somewhat departs from main-stream cognitive science, it was always present in its discourse in the writings of scholars such as Vygotsky, Gibson, Bartlett, and more recently Rumelhart Smolansky and Hinton, Alexander, Lakoff, and Edelman. The main body of the paper discusses the IRN element in the writings of these authors and by doing so develops and elaborates the various facets and potentialities of IRN and their role in the construction of cognitive maps.

Synergetics, Inter-Representation Networks and Cognitive Maps

Synergetics and its concept of order parameters can provide a general theoretical framework for the study of cognitive maps. Close links between processes in the internal world of the individual and processes in the external environment have led to the notion of inter-representational networks (IRN). In this paper it will be shown how the concept of order parameters allows us to cast the notion of IRN into a mathematical form that in the present paper is based on graphical representations. After a short reminder of synergetics, cognitive maps and IRN we present a general model of IRN in terms of synergetics, where the mathematical basis is demonstrated. We then show how the above model can be applied to the construction of cognitive maps, in particular to environmental learning and transformations in cognitive mapping. Finally, we show, how collective cognitive processes may take place.

A Synergetic Approach to the Self-Organization of Cities and Settlements

The self-organization of cities is studied in terms of synergetics paradigms of pattern formation and pattern recognition. The authors propose a mathematical model that describes the change of populations by migration, changes of profession, and so on, first by a linear model whose deficiencies are outlined. Then a nonlinear model is introduced that is based on the concept of attention parameters as introduced in pattern recognition in synergetics and that allows for a saturation of attention. In this model, a competition between various final patterns occurs. It would seem that the model may allow for the inclusion of planning and self-organized realizations.