Knowledge Based Schematization of Route Directions

It is common for a wayfinding task to involve travel across a familiar and an unfamiliar region that encompass different parts of the same route. Routes of this kind would entail schematized descriptions and the schematization would directly depend on the familiarity of the region being described. This paper presents a new formalization that identifies key conceptual elements of such routes and introduces a principle of “knowledge chunking” that enables their schematization. This is followed by empirical evidence that supports this schematization of route directions for wayfinder’s who may perform such a task. The evidence suggests the need for future wayfinding systems to produce schematized route descriptions based on the user’s prior knowledge of a route. The formal approach presented is useful in implementing such a system and possible methods for its implementation are discussed.