Theo Herrmann

Modelling Navigational Knowledge by Route Graphs

Navigation has always been an interdisciplinary topic of research, because mobile agents of different types are inevitably faced with similar navigational problems. Therefore, human navigation can readily be compared to navigation in other biological organisms or in artificial mobile agents like autonomous robots. One such navigational strategy, route-based navigation, in which an agent moves from one location to another by following a particular route, is the focus of this paper. Drawing on the research from cognitive psychology and linguistics, biology, and robotics, we present a simple, abstract formalism to express the key concepts of route-based navigation in a common scientific language. Starting with the distinction of places and route segments, we develop the notion of a route graph, which can serve as the basis for complex navigational knowledge. Implications and constraints of the model are discussed along the way, together with examples of different instantiations of parts of the model in different mobile agents. By providing this common conceptual framework, we hope to advance the interdisciplinary discussion of spatial navigation.

The Route Direction Effect and its Constraints

The route direction effect can be characterized as follows: When a person has learned a route and imagines that he or she is at a specific point along this route, then it is easier for him or her to imagine him or her-self at another point on the route which lies in the direction in which the route was learned than the other way around. This means that route knowledge includes information on the route if acquisition, i.e. the direction of acquisition is corepresented in cognitive maps. Within a network theory approach, the route direction effect can be conceived of as a specific asymmetry in the spread of activation. Priming-experiments were carried out to determine a time window for the experimental realization of asymmetrical activation spread. We were actually able to show that the route direction effect disappears when the Stimulus Onset Asynchrony is extended. This was to be expected because a longer SOA causes the target to be pre-activated, regardless of whether i t represents an object which was positioned in the direction of acquisition, or not. In further experiments we showed that if route knowledge is gained via a gradient sequence, then normal ecological conditions of perception must have existed: The direction of perception must correspond to the direction of movement. Objects, as well as their surroundings, must be perceived within the normal optical flow. Otherwise the information about the direction of acquisition cannot be adequately incorporated, and the route direction effect does not occur.

Oblique Angled Intersections and Barriers: Navigating through a Virtual Maze

The configuration of a spatial layout has a substantial effect on the acquisition and the representation of the environment. In four experiments, we investigated navigation difficulties arising at oblique angled intersections. In the first three studies we investigated specific arrow-fork configurations. In dependence on the branch subjects use to enter the intersection different decision latencies and numbers of errors arise. If subjects see the intersection as a fork, it is more difficult to find the correct way as if it is seen as an arrow. In a fourth study we investigated different heuristics people use while making a detour around a barrier. Detour behaviour varies with the perspective. If subjects learn and navigate through the maze in a field perspective they use a heuristic of preferring right angled paths. If they have a view from above and acquire their knowledge in an observer perspective they use oblique angled paths more often.

Speech and Situation: A General Model for the Process of Speech Production

For a long time research on speech production was the stepchild of the psychology of language. In the last few years the situation has changed. As a result of growing interest in the subject we now find general models (e.g., Chafe, 1977a; Herrmann, 1983; Schlesinger, 1977; Zammuner, 1981) as well as theoretical and empirical work on specific aspects of the production process (e.g., on the linearization problem: Ehrich & Koster, 1983; Levelt, 1981, 1982a, 1982b; Ullmer-Ehrich, 1979, 1982; on principles of sentence production: Osgood, 1980; Rosenberg, 1977; on discourse coherence: Hobbs, 1979; Marslen-Wilson, Levy, & Tyler, 1982; McCutchen & Perfetti, 1982). In this chapter we briefly describe a general approach to speech production, which is the result of theoretical and empirical work done by the “Research Group on Language and Cognition” in Mannheim, West Germany. A more detailed theoretical account of our model is given by Herrmann (1983); some of the empirical studies are presented in our research reports Nos. 10,20,23,27, and 28.

Die mentale Repräsentation von Konzepten, Wörtern und Figuren

Wir verstehen als Wortbedeutung die Beziehung, die Worter mit Konzepten eingehen (Herrmann, 1994). Das kognitive System des Menschen verfugt unter anderem uber mentale (interne) Reprasentationen von Wortern und von Konzepten. Die Wort- und die Konzeptreprasentationen sind in komplexer Weise miteinander assoziativ verknupft (vergleiche auch Herrmann & Graf, 1996). Wir beginnen unsere Erorterungen mit Anmerkungen zum Begriff der mentalen Reprasentation.

Einflüsse des Wissenserwerbs auf die Linearisierung beim Sprechen über räumliche Anordnungen

Zusammenfassung. Der Artikel befast sich mit Determinanten der Linearisierung beim Sprechen uber Raum. Die bekannten Linearisierungsprinzipien, wie das Prinzip der naturlichen Ordnung, berucksichtigen in erster Linie Kennzeichen des zu sequenzierenden Materials und des Sprachproduktionsprozesses. Ausgangspunkt unserer Untersuchungen ist die Annahme, das die sprachliche Linearisierung von Raumkomponenten zudem vom Wissenserwerb beeinflust wird. Zur Prufung dieser Annahme werden sechs Experimente vorgelegt (N = 272). Die Teilnehmenden erwarben dabei Wissen uber eine raumliche Anordnung, uber die sie anschliesend sprachen. Die dabei verwendete Linearisierung wurde als abhangige Variable erhoben. In allen Experimenten zeigten sich Einflusse des Wissenserwerbs, worauf wir als Geneseeffekt rekurrieren. Besondere Bedeutsamkeit kam der ersten Erfahrung mit einer Anordnung zu (Ankereffekt). Charakteristika beider Effekte werden dargestellt und vor dem Hintergrund von Gedachtnis- und Sprachpsychologie diskutiert.

Other-Relatedness in Language Processing

Addressee-orientation or, more generally, other-relatedness must be considered a basic feature of language-in-use. Nevertheless, this feature has been largely neglected in language studies, mainly in experimental psycholinguistics. This neglect was one of the reasons for the foundation of the Heidelberg/Mannheim Research Group on Language Processing in Social Context (LISCO), whose major topic is the other-relatedness of speech and of language comprehension. Examples of this research and of the guiding theories are given as an introduction to this Special Issue which contains six reports on the work of the LISCO group plus an invited comment by Robert M. Krauss.

Requesting Rewards: A Study of Distributive Justice

Social psychological research on distributive justice is confined to thehow much of reward allocation situations. This paradigm was elaborated byinvestigating verbal forms of reward claims in an experiment with 193 pupils aged 12 to 14. In so-called standard situations, speakers used simple E-requests and speech ellipses (referred to the speakers primary goal e.g. Id like my 15 chips or 15 chips please) to state their claims. In ambiguous non-standard situations, more polite and complex request forms were manifested which were composed of justification and appeal clauses (e.g. We made an agreement that each of us gets something. I would like to have 15 chips too). The findings are viewed as an initial contribution toward greater ecological validity in the social psychological area of distributive justice because real allocations take place in face-to-face situations in which speech plays an important role.

The Dimensional Conception Of Space And The Use Of Dimensional Prepositions In Different Languages

As a result of linguistic analyses, it seems advantageous to assume that spatial prepositional phrases express relations between places (which may be occupied by objects) and not between objects themselves. In front of and behind, or German vor and hinter , respectively, describe object relations on the first horizontal axis. This chapter refers to some attempts to explain the conditions under which the prepositions are used in one way or another. It proposes a psychological explanation of the observed crosslinguistic differences that relates to different patterns of information processing in a spreading activation network, at the same time rejecting apparent explanations in terms of linguistic rules. The chapter also lists of acknowledgements and list of reference materials. Keywords: activation network; crosslinguistic differences; linguistic analyses; linguistic rules; prepositional phrases; psychological explanation

Gefühle und soziale Konventionen

Dieser Beitrag basiert nicht auf eigenen Untersuchungsergebnissen und ist weitgehend spekulativ. Er handelt von der konventionalen Vorpragung einer Klasse von Gefuhlen und zugleich davon, welche Rolle diese Klasse von Gefuhlen in konventional fundierten Handlungsregulationen spielt. Die konventionale Einbettung und regulative Funktion von Emotionen scheinen mir in ihrer Tragweite von der gegenwartigen Psychologie nicht hinreichend berucksichtigt zu werden, und schon diese Sachlage durfte auch sehr provisorische und spekulative Uberlegungen der von mir beabsichtigten Art rechtfertigen. Freilich ersetzen aber solche Spekulationen keine beharrliche psychologische Forschungsarbeit und auch nicht einen umfassenden Import von gesicherten Erkenntnisresultaten aus unseren Nachbarwissenschaften.