Abstract
Geographic phenomena exist within a multi-dimensional space–time continuum. Dynamic geographic phenomena at all levels of scale can be conceptualized and represented as spatiotemporal patterns, space–time processes, or events—changes within or between objects that are experienced as bounded by psychologically discreet beginnings and ends. Humans rarely care about spatiotemporal entities in isolation. Visualization and analysis approaches that focus on individual spatiotemporal phenomena in isolation are likely doomed to failure because they miss the relational structure humans use to process and reason about events. We contend that a static and geometric decompositional approach to spatiotemporal patterns and processes limits the tools that can be applied to a broad class of spatiotemporal data that are important to users. This class includes events where there is a spatiotemporal coordination among or within objects, such as a car changing its movement direction because of an approaching car, or a hurricane not making landfall because of changing atmospheric conditions. Often such coordination allows inferences about causal relations among the components of an event. In this chapter we argue for the need for perceptually salient and cognitively inspired animated displays that help humans more effectively and efficiently detect relationships in complex events.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Andrienko N, Andrienko G (2007) Designing visual analytics methods for massive collections of movement data. Cartographica 42(2):117–138
Andrienko G, Andrienko N, Dykes J, Fabrikant SI, Wachowicz M (2008) Geovisualization of dynamics, movement and change: key issues, and developing approaches in visualization research. Special issue on geovisualization of dynamics, movement and change. Inf Vis 7(3):173–180
Andrienko G, Andrienko N, Demsar U, Dransch D, Dykes J, Fabrikant SI, Jern M, Kraak M-J, Schumann H, Tominski C (2010) Space time, and visual analytics. Int J Geogra Inf Sci 24(10):1577–1600
Aslin RN, Saffran JR, Newport EL (1998) Computation of conditional probability statistics by 8-month-old infants. Psychol Sci 9:321–324
Bertin J (1983) Semiology of graphics: diagrams, networks maps. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison
Blok C (2000) Dynamic visualization in a developing framework for the representation of geographic data. Cybergeo, article 135, “3O ans de sémiologie graphique. http://cybergeo.revues.org/index509.html. Accessed 7 April 2010
Casati R, Varzi AC (2008) Event concepts. In: Shipley TF, Zacks JM (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford University Press, New York
Dent BD (1999) Cartography. Thematic map design. Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque
DiBiase D, MacEachren AM, Krygier JB, Reeves C, Brenner A (1991) Animated cartographic visualization in earth system science. In: Proceedings of the 15th conference of the international cartographic association, Bournemouth, U.K. 223–232
DiBiase D, MacEachren AM, Krygier JB, Reeves C (1992) Animation and the role of map design in scientific visualization. Cartography Geogr Inf Syst 19(4):201–214, 265–266
Dodge S, Weibel S, Lautenschütz A-K (2008) Towards a taxonomy of movement patterns. Inf Vis 7:240–252
Dorling D, Openshaw S (1992) Using computer animation to visualize space-time patterns. Envirn Planning B: Planning Des 19:639–650
Fabrikant SI, Goldsberry K (2005) Thematic relevance and perceptual salience of dynamic geovisualization displays. In: Proceedings, 22th ICA/ACI international cartographic conference: A Coruña, Spain, 9–16 July 2005
Fabrikant SI, Rebich-Hespanha S, Andrienko N, Andrienko G, Montello DR (2008a) Novel method to measure inference affordance in static small multiple displays representing dynamic processes. Cartogra J 45(3):201–215
Fabrikant SI, Rebich S, Montello DR, Andrienko G, Andrienko N (2008b) A visual analytics approach to evaluate inference affordance from animated map displays. GIScience 2008 Pre-Conference workshop on Geospatial Visual Analytics, Park City, UT. http://geoanalytics.net/GeoVisualAnalytics08/a15.pdf. 23 Sept 2008
Griffin AL, MacEachren AM, Hardisty F, Steiner E, Li B (2006) A comparison of animated maps with static small-multiple maps for visually identifying space-time clusters. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 96(4):53–740
Harrower M (2003) Tips for designing effective animated maps. Cartogr Perspect 44:63–65
Harrower M (2004) A look at the history and future of animated maps. Cartographica 39(3):33–42
Harrower M (2007) The cognitive limits of animated maps. Cartographica 42(4):269–277
Harrower M, Fabrikant SI (2008) The role of map animation in geographic visualization. In: Dodge M, Turner M, McDerby M (eds) Geographic visualization: concepts, tools and applications. Wiley, Chichester
Hegarty M, Kriz S (2008) Effects of knowledge and spatial ability on learning from animation. In: Lowe R, Schnotz W (eds) Learning with Animation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hegarty M, Smallman HS, Stull AT, Canham M (2009) Naïve cartography: how intuitions about display configuration can hurt performance. Cartographica 44:171–187
Heider F, Simmel M (1944) An experimental study of apparent behavior. Am J Psychol 57:243–249
Johansson G (1973) Visual perception of biological motion and a model for its analysis. Percept Psychophys 14:201–211
Klippel A, Li R (2009) The endpoint hypothesis: a topological-cognitive assessment of geographic scale movement patterns. In: Stewart HK, Claramunt C, Denis M, Ligozat G (eds.) Proceedings of Spatial information theory, 9th international conference, COSIT 2009 Springer, Berlin
Köbben B, Yaman M (1996) Evaluating dynamic visual variables. In: Ormeling FJ, Köbben B, Perez Gomez R (eds.) Proceedings of the seminar on teaching animated cartography, Madrid, Spain, August 30–September 1, 1995. International Cartographic Association, pp 45–51
Kohler W (1947) Gestalt psychology. Liveright, New York
Koslowski LT, Cutting JE (1977) Recognizing the sex of a walker from a dynamic point-light display. Percept Psychophys 21:575–580
Kurby CA, Zacks JM (2008) Segmentation in the perception and memory of events. Trends Cogn Sci 12(2):72–79
Larkin J, Simon H (1987) Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cogn Sci 11:65–99
Laube P, Imfeld S, Weibel R (2005) Discovering relative motion patterns in groups of moving point objects. Int J Geograph Inf Sci 19(6):639–668
Lautenschütz A-K (2011) Assessing the relevance of context for visualizations of movement trajectories. Dissertation, University of Zurich
Lowe RK (1999) Extracting information from an animation during complex visual learning. Eur J Psychol Educ 14:225–244
Lowe R, Schnotz W (eds) (2008) Learning with animation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Lowe R, Schnotz W, Rasch T (2011) Aligning affordances of graphics with learning task requirements. Appl Cogn Psychol 25. doi:10.1002/acp.1712
MacEachren AM (1995) How maps work, representation, visualization, and design. The Guilford Press, New York
Maguire M, Shipley TF, Brumberg J, Ennis M (2011) Similarities in object and event segmentation: a geometric approach to spatiotemporal path segmentation. Spatial Cogn Comput 11:254–279
Michotte A (1963) The perception of causality. Basic Books, New York
Morrison JL (1974) A theoretical framework for cartographic generalization with the emphasis on the process of symbolization. Int Yearb Cartogr 14:115–127
North JS, Williams MA, Hodges N, Ward P, Ericsson KA (2009) Perceiving patterns in dynamic action sequences: investigating the processes underpinning stimulus recognition and anticipation skill. Appl Cogn Psychol 23(6):878–894
Runeson S, Frykholm G (1981) Visual perception of lifted weight. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 7(4):733–740
Schwan S, Garsoffky B (2008) The role of segmentation in perception and understanding of events. In: Shipley TF, Zacks J (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. YorkOxford University Press, New
Schwartz R (2008) Events are what we make of them. In: Shipley TF, Zacks J (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford University Press, New York
Shipley TF (2003) The effect of object and event orientation on perception of biological motion. Psychol Sci 14:377–380
Shipley TF (2008) An invitation to an event. In: Shipley TF, Zacks J (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford University Press, New York
Shipley TF, Maguire MJ (2008) Geometric information for event segmentation. In: Shipley TF, Zacks J (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford University Press, New York
Shipley TF, Zacks JM (eds) (2008) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford series in visual cognition. Oxford University Press, New York
Stewart Hornsby K, Yuan M (eds) (2008) Understanding dynamics of geographic domains. CRC Press, New York
Troje NF (2002) Decomposing biological motion: a framework for analysis and synthesis of human gait patterns. J Vis 2:371–387
Troje NF, Westhoff C (2006) Inversion effect in biological motion perception: evidence for a “life detector”? Curr Biol 16:821–824
Tversky B, Morrison J, Betrancourt M (2002) Animation: can it facilitate? Int J Hum Comput Stud 57(4):247–262
Tversky B, Zacks JM, Martin Hard B (2008) The structure of experience. In: Shipley TF, Zacks J (eds) Understanding events: from perception to action. Oxford University Press, New York
Zacks JM, Tversky B (2001) Event structure in perception and cognition. Psychol Bull 127(1):3–21
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Shipley, T.F., Fabrikant, S.I., Lautenschütz, AK. (2013). Creating Perceptually Salient Animated Displays of Spatiotemporal Coordination in Events. In: Raubal, M., Mark, D., Frank, A. (eds) Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34359-9_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34359-9_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34358-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34359-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)