COGNITIVE NAVIGATION SYMPOSIUM: SENSE OF DIRECTION
Recently Prof Kate Jeffery, working with The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN), gave a one day symposium at University College London.
Themes
• How animals orient – perspectives from ethology and neuroscience
• How humans orient – perspectives from cognitive neuroscience
• Helping humans orient – perspectives from architecture and design
• The future – building a more navigable world
Speakers
Prof Kate Jeffery
Prof Kate Jeffery gave a great introduction telling us about all the important work that had laid the ground work for our knowledge of our navigational skills from a perspective of how the brain processes and interprets navigational information to enable navigation.
David Barrie, author of “Incredible Journeys”
David is very eloquent and his recent book is a great primer for everything going on in the navigation field. He is brave at describing areas where Science still does not know the answers.
Barbara Webb, University of Edinburgh.
Barbara Webb gave an enthralling description of the processing used by ants to find their way home and also to re-visit food sources. She showed the entangled structure of the ant brain and then showed how functionally it worked with super clarity.
Caswell Barry, University College London
This presentation tied in with the one by Barbara Webb on how animals can use the grid cells they have for navigation and used computer simulations to prove the point.
Eric Warrant, Lund University
Eric described the astonishing migration of the Australian Bogong Moth. You will find more about his work already published on this site see “Long distance Nocturnal navigator”.
Vladislava Segan
She talked about how dementia changes people’s lives and that we should concentrate on what they can still do and what they can no longer do well.
Tim Fendley, Legible London
His firm does the signing and directional strategies for people navigating around cities etc. His firm designed the maps outside tube stations in London.
Tim Stonor, Space Syntax
Tim Stoner is an architect and interested in how cities work and why.
Niall McLaughlin, architect
This presentation was a fascinating description of the design effort his firm has put into designing spaces for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.