NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

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This action funds Gengen Friday He of The University of Tennessee to conduct a research project in the Social, Behavioral and Economic sciences area, during the summer of 2013 at The University of Tokyo in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The project title is "Investigating Collaborative Simultaneous Wayfinding in a Culturally Unfamiliar Setting." The host scientist is Dr. Toru Ishikawa.In an increasingly more culturally diverse and spatially complex world, little is known about a city's cultural-specific-landscape effect on the way people navigate, or what types of spatial information are communicated during navigation. This project is investigating how foreigners and local residents acquire, interpret, process and communicate spatial information during active simultaneous collaborative wayfinding in a Japanese City. This is a novel experimental setup that combines cognitive behavioral spatial science with geographic information science to understand the interaction between people, environment and technology. This study re-examines and synthesizes theories in cognitive psychology, the spatial information acquisition process, landmark recognition, active navigation, and communication. Furthermore, this study can make a practical contribution to designing better navigation aids for foreigners in Japan and help to create more navigation friendly cities for immigrants and visitors in America. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. The results from this study can add to the understanding of human cognitive process. This study also has the potential to make practical contributions to the development of better navigation aids in Japan. Ultimately, this can also lead to the design of more navigation friendly cities for foreigner and immigrants in America.