Tamas Makany

Purpose – With a team interaction analysis model, the authors sought to identify a varying range of individual and collective intellectual behaviors in a series of communicative intents particularly expressed with multimodal interaction methods. In this paper, the authors aim to present a ...

People explore and navigate in physical and virtual environments. Do we acquire and utilize spatial information differently in front of a monitor screen than actually moving in real spaces? In this paper, we present an experiment where strategy pattern formation during free spatial exploration was compared between two environments: a real room and an equivalent desktop virtual simulation. Both environments contained five identical landmarks situated at the same relative locations in the rooms. Each of these five landmarks contained a different object. Our data showed that in the physical environment participants were moving through space in patterns that reflected distinguishable and meaningful strategy. In contrast, the exploratory behaviour in the virtual environment was not organized along qualitatively different strategy patterns. One plausible interpretation is that people in physical environment are more confident and experienced in ‘cognitive investments’ into various spatial strategies, whereas they are not in virtual environments. The lack of strategic patterns in the exploration of the virtual environment resulted in relatively inefficient subsequent navigation performance. However, the initial investment in exploration of the physical environment resulted in efficient navigation in the equivalent navigation tasks. Based on these findings, we argue that spatial cognition and behaviour maybe fundamentally different in the real world and in equivalent desktop virtual realities.

A total of 41 participants explored a novel square-shaped environment containing five identical boxes each hiding a visually distinct object. After an initial free exploration the participants were required to locate the objects first in a predetermined and subsequently in an optional order task. Two distinct exploration strategies emerged: Participants explored either along the main axes of the room (axial), or in a more spatially spread, circular pattern around the edges of the room (circular). These initial exploration strategies influenced the optimality of spatial navigation performance in the subsequent optional order task. The results reflect a trade-off between memory demands and dis- tance efficiency. The more sequential axial strategy resulted in fewer demands on spatial memory but required more distance to be travelled. The circular strategy was more demanding on memory but required less subsequent travelling distance. The findings are discussed in terms of spatial knowledge acquisition and optimality of strategy representations.

Taking notes is of uttermost importance in academic and commercial use and success. Different techniques for note-taking utilise different cognitive processes and strategies. This experimental study examined ways to enhance cognitive performance via different note-taking techniques. By comparing performances of traditional, linear style note-taking with alternative non-linear technique, we aimed to examine the efficiency and importance of different ways of taking notes. Twenty-six volunteer adult learners from an information management course participated in this study. Cognitive performance scores from a traditional linear note-taking group were compared with another group by using a commercially available non-linear note-taking technique. Both groups were tested in two settings: after a classroom lecture and a panel forum discussion. Tasks included measures on story comprehension, memory, complexity of mental representations and metacognitive skills. Data analysis revealed that the non-linear note-takers were significantly better than the linear group both in terms of the quantity and the quality of the learned material. This study demonstrates the importance of using cognitively compatible note-taking techniques. It identifies the cognitive mechanisms behind effective note-taking and knowledge representation. Using such techniques enables deeper understanding and more integrated knowledge management.