Foresight: a new approach based on the Z-number cognitive map

Foresight has recently emerged as one of the most attractive and practical fields of study, while being used to draw up a preferable future and formulate appropriate strategies for achieving predetermined goals. The present research aimed at providing a framework for foresight with a primary focus on the role of a cognitive approach and its combination with the concept of fuzzy cognitive map in the environments of uncertainty and ambiguity. The proposed framework consisted of the 3 phases: pre-foresight, foresight, and post-foresight. The main stage (foresight) focused on the role of imagination and intuition in drawing the future in the experts’ minds and depicting their perceptions above perceptions in the form of a fuzzy cognitive map influenced by variables related to the subject under study in order to determine a preferable future. The use of a Z-number concept and integrating it with fuzzy cognitive maps in the foresight-oriented decision-making space, which was mainly saturated with uncertainty and ambiguity, was one of the main strengths of the proposed framework in the current investigation. The present paper focused primarily on the evolution of expert’s knowledge with regard to the topic of foresight. The role of Z-number in various processes, from data collection to illustration, analysis, and aggregation of cognitive maps, was considered for gaining knowledge and understanding into the nature of future. Moreover, an ultimate objective was realized through identifying, aggregating, and selecting the variables from each expert’s perspective and then the relationship between each variable was determined in the main stage of foresight. Finally, the proposed framework was presented and explicated in the form of a case study, which revealed satisfactory results.

Comparing Map Learning between Touchscreen-Based Visual and Haptic Displays: A Behavioral Evaluation with Blind and Sighted Users

The ubiquity of multimodal smart devices affords new opportunities for eyes-free applications for conveying graphical information to both sighted and visually impaired users. Using previously established haptic design guidelines for generic rendering of graphical content on touchscreen interfaces, the current study evaluates the learning and mental representation of digital maps, representing a key real-world translational eyes-free application. Two experiments involving 12 blind participants and 16 sighted participants compared cognitive map development and test performance on a range of spatio-behavioral tasks across three information-matched learning-mode conditions: (1) our prototype vibro-audio map (VAM), (2) traditional hardcopy-tactile maps, and (3) visual maps. Results demonstrated that when perceptual parameters of the stimuli were matched between modalities during haptic and visual map learning, test performance was highly similar (functionally equivalent) between the learning modes and participant groups. These results suggest equivalent cognitive map formation between both blind and sighted users and between maps learned from different sensory inputs, providing compelling evidence supporting the development of amodal spatial representations in the brain. The practical implications of these results include empirical evidence supporting a growing interest in the efficacy of multisensory interfaces as a primary interaction style for people both with and without vision. Findings challenge the long-held assumption that blind people exhibit deficits on global spatial tasks compared to their sighted peers, with results also providing empirical support for the methodological use of sighted participants in studies pertaining to technologies primarily aimed at supporting blind users.

CONCEPTSYSTEM OF MODERN ENGLISH GASTRONOMY ADVERTISING AESTHETIC DISCOURSE

The article presents a study that allowed us to construct a cognitive map of modern English gastronomic advertising aesthetic discourse. The main features in the understanding of gastronomic advertising discourse by the representatives of the English-speaking community – gourmet aesthetes are analyzed. The research material for the modern English gastronomic advertising aesthetic discourse was the gastronomic Internet texts of the social network Instagram, which contained a particularly expressive specific aesthetic component. It is established that the mental framework of the cognitive space of a modern English gourmet esthete is formed by 48 significant discourse-creating autochthons-concepts (sensations, emotions, recipe, ingredient, taste and others). The separation of the constants of the concept system of modern English gastronomic advertising aesthetic discourse – generative autochthonous concepts was carried out through the inventory of texts, fixation of objectifiers of concepts and their grouping into semantic areas. To verify the objectivity of the facts, a quantitative method of calculation is used, the criterion χ2. With the help of linguo quantitative methods, system connections (strong, medium and weak) between the main autochthonous concepts (RECIPE – INGREDIENT, TRADITIONAL MEAL – TEA, EXPERIENCE – SATISFACTION and others) were established and significant autochthonous concepts in modern English gastronomy were identified. The components of the conceptual system of modern English-language gastronomic aesthetic discourse and their combination builds a unique representation in the form of a cognitive map. The study allowed to construct a cognitive map of the studied type of discursive practice, which reproduces its conceptual system and, thus, explains the main mental cores of its participants – modern English gourmet aesthetes: characteristics of products, feelings and emotions they evoke, the principle of healthy eating, demonstration of their own gastronomic preferences in social networks in the form of blogs, because the modern English-speaking aesthetic and gourmet world of social network is impossible to imagine without a blog, where it is important to post on the social network Instagram, which describes the author's experience and feelings and emotions from food (first of all, pleasure and happiness), which provide the aesthetics of the advertising text. Key words: discourse; advertising discourse; gastronomic discourse; aesthetic discourse, cognitive mapping.

From Individual Cognitive Maps to a Collective Cognitive Map: Prescriptive Guidelines and Measurement of Factors that Could Distort the Mapping Process

In the collective navigation scenario of a trio exploring in a foreign city, we propose a theoretical piece, which is a prescriptive guideline describing rational ways that can enable the trio to form a collective cognitive map. The guidelines center around three stages of exploration: the initial gathering of information, coming together to plan a route in the new city, and executing the exploration plan. Depending on the desires and goals of the group, they might explore together for some or all of the time, splitting up only when their individual goals diverge. The guidelines suggest an optimal plan for these different possibilities. We propose that a collective cognitive map is formed and improved during the entire cognitive navigation process as demonstrated by the trio drawing sketch maps, creating place maps, and revising other people’s place maps. However, multiple factors could distort the navigation process at various points in the proposed prescriptive guidelines. These factors include individual differences (e.g., personal navigation ability, navigation anxiety, and sex), group dynamics (e.g., leaders and followers, group strategies), and the impact of the environment (e.g., language, culture, safety, and spatiality). We describe a thought experiment for testing collective navigation, including the measurement of these factors and the corresponding possible distortions in the collective map caused by these factors. Finally, we discuss future research directions, including using virtual environments and commercial applications. By utilizing our model, people can be flexible in resolving conflicting information during goal planning while still navigating efficiently.

Higher-Order Conditioning in the Spatial Domain

Spatial learning and memory, the processes through which a wide range of living organisms encode, compute, and retrieve information from their environment to perform goal-directed navigation, has been systematically investigated since the early twentieth century to unravel behavioral and neural mechanisms of learning and memory. Early theories about learning to navigate space considered that animals learn through trial and error and develop responses to stimuli that guide them to a goal place. According to a trial-and error learning view, organisms can learn a sequence of motor actions that lead to a goal place, a strategy referred to as response learning, which contrasts with place learning where animals learn locations with respect to an allocentric framework. Place learning has been proposed to produce a mental representation of the environment and the cartesian relations between stimuli within it—which Tolman coined the cognitive map. We propose to revisit some of the best empirical evidence of spatial inference in animals, and then discuss recent attempts to account for spatial inferences within an associative framework as opposed to the traditional cognitive map framework. We will first show how higher-order conditioning can successfully account for inferential goal-directed navigation in a variety of situations and then how vectors derived from path integration can be integrated via higher-order conditioning, resulting in the generation of higher-order vectors that explain novel route taking. Finally, implications to cognitive map theories will be discussed.

Residents’ Spatial Image Perception of Urban Green Space through Cognitive Mapping: The Case of Beijing, China

The fundamental purpose of future urban development is to meet residents’ yearning for a better city life with the rapid development of urbanization. This study uses a multinomial logit model and cognitive map to evaluate residents’ spatial image perception of urban green space. A field study and data collection were conducted from July to August 2019, using the typical urban green space area in Beijing as the research object. Based on 375 valid questionnaires and 139 cognitive maps, the study analyzed and evaluated the image characteristics and differences of residents to the urban green space under different conditions. The results show the following. First, there is a close relationship between residents’ preference and the characteristics of urban green spaces, especially the working and living environment and characteristics will have a great influence on it. Second, the cognitive map drawn by Beijing residents can be divided into sequential and spatial cognitive maps, and the image perception shows diversified characteristics. However, the perception is relatively superficial overall, and most are simple line maps. Besides, according to the analysis of the elements of the cognitive map, the advantages and disadvantages of each type of urban green space are closely related to their geographical location and internal structure. This study has two key findings. First, the construction of urban green spaces in various cities should be carried out according to local conditions, considering the scientific basis and reasonableness of urban green space in terms of structural setting. Second, the multinomial logit model and cognitive map can effectively quantify the subjective evaluation of respondents’ spatial perceptions in a relatively simple manner, which can be further expanded in the application system design of the method.