A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, recasts how we make geographic sense of our "home town."
In [the study], 26 residents of Tübingen (who had lived in Tübingen for at least two years) were put into a virtual-reality headset and seated in a chair that didn’t allow them to swivel. Participants found themselves in the virtual three-dimensional photorealistic model of their hometown, at locations familiar to them, surrounded by fog masking all but the near distance. Then they had to point to an invisible location—say, the main gate of the university or the fire station. The scenes changed, and so did the participant’s spatial orientation. After 60 three-location trials, participants were asked to draw a map of the town including all the locations they’d pointed to.
The results: Although participants drew differently oriented maps, everyone performed most accurately when facing north and got worse the further they deviated from north. The only explanation the researchers could figure was that they’d all seen, and internalized, a map of Tübingen at some point, and Western maps are all oriented the same way—north on top.
- Medical Xpress
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/18 at 06:20 AM |
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“The implication is that our internal sense of space is actually rather flat – we are very sensitive to where we are in horizontal space but only vaguely aware of how high we are,” said Professor Kate Jeffery, lead author from UCL Psychology and Language Sciences.
That conclusion comes from studies of animals and their ability to "map" whether they are high up or not. Brain studies show that animal brains only weakly track elevation.
- Indian Express
Gov Tech interviewed Greg Franklin, the newly appointed deputy director of health information technology for the California Technology Agency. Data integration was among the questions.
You mentioned that next-gen 911 and GIS could theoretically integrate health data. What might technology deliver?
From a GIS standpoint, being able to map, for example, concentrations of uninsured populations or concentrations of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. How would you do that? You have health information exchange, so the assumption is that providers will be able to capture data though electronic health records — and be able to make data transactions from specialists to primary care providers and move the data around. At the same time, if you are able to capture that data and you have a geocoding service — and some organizations already have it — you can geocode that data. But that data is collected through a central point, maybe through an HIE system itself.
From a mapping standpoint, you would be able to look at pockets of [the population] that may be enrolled — let’s say, in a commercial health plan like Blue Shield of California. You may be able to see a lot of diabetes in Blue Shield of California’s population, but where is it geographically. If it were found in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fresno, that would allow you to tailor certain health-care programs and target those populations in those geographic areas. Is the geocoding [data] part of the HIE mainframe or should it be retained locally at the provider’s organization? Those things would need to be worked out. But clearly there is opportunity to have this massive endeavor to geocode the data moving around the state and be able to report on that from a mapping standpoint, and allow targeting at those specific geographic sites.
- Gov Tech
Kate Jones writes on the G3 blog:
The question [What is today’s equivalent to Jon Snow’s Map?] that was raised by James Reid from JISC during the workshop I was leading at the open geo health event. I would be interested to hear what the readers of this blog think? The workshop was discussing “why GIS is under-utilised in the NHS?” The term GIS in this sense is probably better replaced by location or spatially enabled technology as it encompasses the extent and breadth of contemporary desktop/web/mobile technology.
One suggestion: crowdsourced maps from Haiti. Another: H1N1 maps from a few years ago. Interesting question!
- G3 blog
by Adena Schutzberg on 08/11 at 03:00 AM |
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The research was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, and suggests some species can store maps of key sites. Tiger shrarks were tagged with audio transmitters and they took defined paths from one point to another. The blacktip reef sharks didn't show that behavior. It's not clear if sharks also sense the earth's magnetic field and use that as a navigation aid.
- BBC
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/09 at 05:00 AM |
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