Facilitating Collective Cognition During Group Wayfinding Through the Human Eye

Abstract

Wayfinding can be a challenging activity, requiring humans to select the appropriate route leading to the desired destination, keep track of the changes their position and orientation as they advance along the route, and recognize the destination upon their arrival. As such, wayfinding typically relies on the integration of novel spatial knowledge with an existing mental representation of the environment. Assistance systems can be utilized to help humans to complete the relevant tasks. Such systems can support during spatial knowledge acquisition and help humans coordinate and communicate their activities with others. An assistance system that is capable of recognizing the elements that humans see in their surroundings and uses this information to predict their interests and goals along a route can be a valuable tool for supporting wayfinding tasks, even during group wayfinding. Eye-tracking data can provide critical information regarding some of the cognitive processes involved during wayfinding. This information can be utilized to support the spatial cognition of a single person or the collective cognition of a larger group of people. This chapter demonstrates and discusses the way eye-tracking research can be utilized for acquiring, organizing, and utilizing spatial knowledge of a group of people during wayfinding, in order to investigate the relevant processes and further provide assistance.