2ND CALL FOR PARTICIPATION AND PAPERS
=====================================

2nd International Workshop on
the Cognitive Approach to Modeling Environments (CAME'08) http://www.sfbtr8.spatial-cognition.de/CAME

to be held with
5th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2008) September 23-26, 2008 Park City, Utah, USA http://www.giscience.org


Workshop date: September 23, 2006

Workshop topics and aim:
An environment's spatial characteristics influence human behavior in and conceptualization of that environment. This workshop addresses the adequate representation of this interaction between environment and human behavior in terms of computational models of space. It follows the successful CAME'06 workshop held at GIScience in Münster, Germany.

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers working on the incorporation of environmental characteristics into models of space, thereby building on findings from cognitive psychology and related fields. It will stimulate and foster discussion on the topic and identify future research questions.

Topics include:
A.Primitives of the models:
      * What are the basic representational mechanisms and building
        blocks in cognitively motivated models of space?
      * How do we model specific types of environments (indoor vs.
        outdoor; vista (visible) vs. environmental (large-scale) vs.
        geographical space)?
      * Can we identify common elements and structures in these models
        and transformations? How can we identify salient environmental
        characteristics that may influence human behavior (structural
        and functional complexity, landmarks, symmetries)?

B. Elements of space, principles of representations, and spatial 
   ontologies:
      * What are the environmental characteristics we need to address
        and how can we classify them (taxonomies, ontologies)?
      * How can we bridge the gap between "traditional" GIS models
        (vector / raster / network) and findings in cognitive
        psychology?
      * Should we build on the traditional GIS models or do we need to
        build new models from scratch?

C. Applications: Communication of spatial information:
  * How can we adapt the presentation of spatial information to the 
    environmental situation?
  * How can we identify and emphasize the information relevant for this 
    situation?
  * How can real-world applications, such as location based services, 
    benefit from such models?
  * What are specifics and what are commonalities of different 
    representational formats?

D. Applications: Designing environments:
  * How do we exploit these models when designing a new building or  
    neighborhood?
  * Which are good, feasible ways to improve "difficult" environments  
    (signage, structural changes, etc)?
  * How do we avoid designing "difficult" environments in the first 
    place?


Important dates:
May,   9:  deadline for paper submissions
July,  7:  notification of acceptance
Sept., 23: workshop day at GIScience


Call for papers:
Please submit short papers in PDF format by e-mail to the workshop organizers. The length of papers should be no more than 4 pages or 2000 words.
Submitted papers will be reviewed by the program committee. Accepted papers will be chosen for presentation and publication as report of the Transregional Collaborative Research Center SFB/TR 8 Spatial Cognition. We also aim for a special issue in an international journal.


Further information can be found here:
http://www.sfbtr8.spatial-cognition.de/CAME


Organizers:
Kai-Florian Richter
Universitaet Bremen
richter@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de

Urs-Jakob Rüetschi
National University of Rwanda
ursjakob@cgisnur.org

Alasdair Turner
University College London, UK
a.turner@ucl.ac.uk