|
Major Research Subjects of Ishikawa, T. (2006-) Associate Professor
Further information is available at http://home.csis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~ishikawa/
My major research interests are in human spatial cognition and behavior. Many researchers from various disciplines have investigated human spatial knowledge of environments, including geography, psychology, planning, linguistics, sociology, and computer science; in the field of geographic information science, the importance of cognitive issues has also been recognized recently. The premise is that it is important to look at humans (and their cognitive processes) acting in space and reasoning about space, as well as physical environments or information about physical environments per se. From this perspective, I investigate various issues of spatial cognition and behavior scientifically and empirically, on the basis of theories and methods of social, cognitive, and behavioral sciences.
- Spatial Cognition and Environmental Psychology
Space is a fundamental and indispensable entity or concept for humans, who live in and are surrounded by it, but how do they perceive the surrounding space? As people act in the environment, they acquire knowledge about it, store the knowledge in their minds, and use it to guide their behavior in adaptive ways. People's behavior is thus based not only on the physical environment, but also on the environment as perceived, conceived, and remembered. I study this fundamental process of spatial knowledge acquisition (called cognitive mapping) and the structure of acquired spatial knowledge (referred to by the famous metaphor cognitive maps). I am also interested in the psychology (feelings, beliefs, and attitudes) of people in space (e.g., environmental aesthetics, hazard perception). Other research topics include individual differences in spatial abilities, training of spatial skills, and the development (or evaluation) of navigation support systems.
- Visualization of Spatial Information
I am also interested in visualization issues about spatial information, particularly in relation to the understanding of spatial representations such as maps or graphs. Spatial representations are often used to present geographic information, for example, navigation route maps, weather maps, climate forecast maps, and various other thematic maps. Visualization has great potential for presenting spatial (and nonspatial) phenomena, but on the other hand, understanding spatial representations has been shown not to be a straightforward task. Also, individuals differ in learning styles or preferences: some people prefer visual/spatial methods and others prefer verbal methods. I study how to present spatial information effectively, depending on the user's attributes and the purpose of a task.
- Geoscience Learning and Education
Space is a unifying theme across many fields of science and engineering, including chemistry, mathematics, medicine, and mechanical engineering. In geoscience, particularly, students need to master complex spatial tasks, spanning a wide range of scales (e.g., comprehending the crystalline structure of minerals, using and making maps, visualizing geologic structures from field observations, understanding atmospheric circulation patterns); whereas a significant portion of students have difficulty with such high-level spatial thinking. To help students master the skill, various educational or learning materials have recently been developed, using interactive 3-D visualizations or animations. I am interested in examining the effectiveness of using visualizations in geoscience education to foster student learning.
|
