Call for Participation

 

AAAI 2005 Spring Symposium on

 

"Reasoning with Mental and External Diagrams:

Computational Modeling and Spatial Assistance"

 

Stanford University, California

March 21-23, 2005



 

Symposium Description

 

The role of diagrammatic representations in reasoning processes has been 

investigated from three different interdisciplinary perspectives: from 

computa­tional modeling, from spatial assist­ance, and with respect to the 

interplay of cognitive processes and external diagrams. All three fields 

have different foci of interest; however, the fields are closely related to 

each other.

 

The primary goal of this symposium is to bring to­gether researchers to 

explore the role of dia­grams in sup­porting in­telligent reasoning 

processes in humans and technical systems, as well as in human-ma­chine 

interaction. Participants are asked to provide thoughts on the 

in­tegra­tion of the three perspectives rather than just presenting 

specific results from one of the fields.

 



Sample questions of interest are:

-  how do mental representations and external diagrams influence each 

   other while solving spatial problems?

-  how can computational cognitive models be used to better assess a 

   user's cognitive needs in performing a spatial task?

-  how does knowledge about human imagery inform the process of 

   de­signing and understanding external depictions?

-  what is the role of pictorial space as a representational medium 

   for dealing with prob­lems on various scales?

-  How does inspection of diagrammatic representations assist mental 

   model building by novices and by experts?

-  How are dynamic aspects of spatial information conveyed in 

   diagrams and how are they processed in mental images?

 

Besides examining the fundamental issues outlined above, we also aim to 

discuss practical scenarios and fields of application, such as in urban 

planning or architectural design, with re­spect to location-based services, 

or in instruction and education.

The symposium will be scheduled to provide extensive discussion time and 

group inter­actions. There will be a series of presentations with 

significant question-and-answer time, as well as topic-oriented group 

discussion sessions.

 

 

Submission Information

 

Please email submissions of 3-6 pages (preferably in AAAI format as PDF) to 

barkowsky@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de. Submissions can be position statements, 

work in progress, or completed work. For more information about the 

symposium see www.sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de/remedi. For general information 

regarding the AAAI 2005 Spring Symposium Series see 

www.aaai.org/Symposia/Spring/2005.

 

 

Deadlines

 

·  symposium submissions: October 8, 2004

·  notification of acceptance: November 5, 2004

·  camera-ready copies of contributions: January 31, 2005

 

 

Organizing Committee

 

Thomas Barkowsky (co-chair)

Universität Bremen, Germany

barkowsky@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de

 

Christian Freksa (co-chair)

Universität Bremen, Germany

freksa@sfbtr8.uni-bremen.de

 

Mary Hegarty (co-chair)

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

hegarty@psych.ucsb.edu

 

Ric Lowe (co-chair)

Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia

R.K.Lowe@curtin.edu.au

 

Michel Denis

Université de Paris-Sud, France

Michel.Denis@limsi.fr

 

John S. Gero

University of Sydney, Australia

john@arch.usyd.edu.au

 

Daniel L. Schwartz

Stanford University, USA

Daniel.Schwartz@stanford.edu