Lab Students

Opportunities for Participation

We are currently running a spatial thinking education program and we are looking for participants. Please select one of the links below to get involved. More Info

Adult Participation Form


Minor Participation Form




Who We Are

The Spatial and Map Cognition Research Lab.

What We Do

We study spatial cognition and thinking, spatial abilities, and map use.

Where We Do It

SMCRL is a part of the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon - Eugene.

Maureen Kelley (2006-present)

doctoral student, geography

Maureen is a PhD student in the Geography Department at the University of Oregon. She received both her masters and bachelors from the Geography Department at San Jose State University. While attending SJSU, Maureen worked at the United States Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California. Trained as a cartographer, she became more interested in how people use maps than improving production techniques. Her resulting masters thesis, “Visual perception of oriented map symbols,” introduced her to the world of perception and psychophysics.

Maureen's research areas are numerous like any geographer; but her primary interests are in map use issues, spatial abilities, and behavior. Her ultimate goal is to understand why some individuals shy away from using maps! Her current research topic deals with how people describe routes in an urban environment using different map types working under the supervision of  Amy Lobben at the University of Oregon and psychologist Sean Laraway at SJSU.

Maureen's Conference Presentations

Kelley, M. A. and Lobben, A.  2007. “Route directions using maps and satellite imagery.” Presented at the annual meeting of The Association of American Geographers. San Francisco, California.

Kelley, M. A., Lawrence, M., Groshong, L., McConnell, J., and Lobben, A. 2006. “Route planning strategies using different environmental representations.” Presented at tha annual meeting of The Association of American Geographers. Chicago, Illinois.

Lawrence, M., Lobben, A., and Kelley, M. 2006. “Creating a tactile map of the University of Oregon campus.” Presented at the annual meeting of The Association of American Geographers. Chicago, Illinois.

Ellefsen, R. and Kelley, M. A. 2002. "Make a land use map of your school's neighborhood using digital orthophoto quads." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the California Geographical Society. Lone Pine, California.

Kelley, M. A. 1999. “Visual perception of oriented point symbols for mapping.” Presented at the annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society. Williamsburg, Virginia.

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Megan Lawrence (2006-present)

doctoral student, geography

Megan is a PhD student in the geography department at the University of Oregon. She received her masters degree from the University of Oregon Department of Geography in 2005, completing a thesis entitled, "The Neural Basis of Map Comprehension and Spatial Abilities." She earned a BS from California State University, Chico where she was swooned by geographic concepts and cartography. She is still taken by how geography is used in our daily lives and is driven to understand how we interact with our environment and put those ideas down in map form for others to interpret.

Megan's primary research interests are focused on human spatial behavior. To understand human behavior she engage in the studies of perception, cognition, and decision making with a mix of behavioral and neurological methodologies. She uses functional magnetic resonances imaging (fMRI) to investigate how neurological brain activity is related human spatial thinking and other forms of behavioral testing. Her current research focuses on the blind and visually impaired in regards to how they read tactile maps, use spatial abilities and strategies and the effects of training.

Megan's Conference Presentations

Lawrence, M. 2007. "Remote Sensing of the Brain." Presented at: The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vancouver, Washington.

Lobben, Amy, Stephen Fickas, Megan Lawrence, Xiangkui Yao. 2007. "Tactile Mapping Software for Blind and Low Vision Science Education." Presented at: the NSF-HRD Joint Annual Meeting. Washington DC.

Lawrence, M. and Lobben, A. 2006.  "Tactile Map Use during Laboratory and Navigational Exercises." Presented at: The North American Cartographic Information Society. Madison, Wisconsin.

Lawrence, M. and Lobben, A. 2006. "Tactile Map Use during Laboratory and Navigational Exercises." Presented at: The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers. Eugene, Oregon.

Lawrence, M., Lobben, A., and Kelly, M. 2006 "Creating a Tactile Map of the University of Oregon Campus." Presented at: The Association of American Geographers. Chicago, Illinois.

Lobben, A., Lawrence, M. 2006. "Hierarchy of Symbols Needed for Tactile Navigation Maps." Cartography and Geographic Information Science, AutoCarto. Vancouver, Washington.

Lobben, Amy K., Megan McNally Lawrence. 2006. "Navigational Features for Tactile Maps." Presented at: the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. Chicago, Illinois.

Lawrence, M. 2005. "Visualizing Map Comprehension and Spatial Abilities." Presented at: The Association of American Geographers. Denver, Colorado.

Lobben, A., Lawrence, M., Olson, J. 2005. "Images of the Geographical Brain: The use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the study of spatial tasks." Presented at: The Association of American Geographers. Denver, Colorado.

Lawrence, M. 2004. "Neural Basis of Map Comprehension and Spatial Abilities." Presented at: The North American Cartographic Information Society. Portland, Maine.

Lawrence, M. 2004. "Neural Basis of Map Reading." Presented at: The Association of American Geographers. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lawrence, M. 2003. "Brain Mapping: What does Cognition Look Like." Presented at: The North American Cartographic Information Society. Jacksonville, Florida.

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Xiangkui Yao (2006-present)

doctoral student, computer and information science

Xiangkui, from mainland China, is currently a doctoral candidate in CIS at the Unviersity of Oregon. He received his MA in Political Science at the University of Oregon in 2004. Before he came to the US, he received his BA in Journalism from the Institute of International Relations in Beijing in 1998.

Xiangkui’s research areas include requirements engineering and wearable computing. His current research focuses on personalization problem from the perspective of requirements engineering. He looks at individual differences related to spatial abilities and the implications for providing navigation assistances to people with cognitive impairments. He is currently working under the supervision of Prof. Lobben and Prof. Fickas on the NSF-funded tactile map editing software. He is also interested in standard issues related to high-tech industry and China.

Xiangkui's Conference Presentations

Xiangkui Yao. Pedestrian Navigation Systems: a Showcase of Deep Personalization Theory. Presented at the Doctoral Consortium on Sept 9 and in the general conference on Sept 11, 2007 at MobileHCI 2007. Singapore.

Xiangkui Yao. Route-Finding Assistances for Community Travelers with Cognitive Impairments: A Comparison of Four Prompt. In-situ 2007. September. Singapore

Xiangkui Yao. Pedestrian Navigation Systems: a Case Study of Deep Personalization. Presented at SEPCASE 2007. May 2007. Minneapolis.

Xiangkui's Published Papers

Xiangkui Yao. 2007. "Pedestrian Navigation Systems: a Showcase of Deep Personalization Theory." Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services, Doctoral Consortium of the 9th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2007), Singapore, Sept 9 -12, 2007.

Fickas, S., Yao, X., Sohlberg, M., Hung, P. 2007. "Route-Finding Assistances for Community Travelers with Cognitive Impairments: A Comparison of Four Prompt." Workshop In-situ 2007: using mobile devices and emergent technology for in-situ evaluations (In-situ 2007) in conjunction with the 9th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2007). September 9, 2007.

Yao, X. and Fickas, S. 2007. "Pedestrian Navigation Systems: a Case Study of Deep Personalization." First Workshop on Software Engineering for Pervasive Computing Applications, Systems and Environments (SEPCASE'07) International Conference on Software Engineering Workshops(ICSEW'07). May 2007. Back to Top

Matthew Millett (2008-present)

master's student, geography

Matt is a master’s student in the Department of Geography at the University of Oregon. He received his bachelor’s degree in geography (with minors in GIS/cartography and French) from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Matt’s research interests include animated and dynamic cartography, wayfinding and route memory, and many elements of human geography including political geography, urban geography and the geography of Canada. He is also studies flag design and flag symbology.

Matt's Conference Presentations

Millett, M.E. 2008. "Animating Dorling Cartograms: Visualizing Population Change in Africa.” Presented at the North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Meeting. October. Missoula, Montana.

Dooley, M. and Millett, M.E. 2008. “Time Scale, Animated Pace and Pattern Detection.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers. April. Boston, Massachusetts.

Millett, M.E., 2007. “African-American Population Growth in Minneapolis, 1980-2000.” Poster presented at the North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Meeting. October. St. Louis, Missouri.

Robert Pickett (2009-present)

undergraduate student, geography and sociology

Robert is an undergraduate student at the University of Oregon. He is majoring in both Geography and Sociology.

Robert works as a research assistant in SMCRL and is currently working on his Honor’s thesis in sociology, examining group identity and its affect on behavioral patterns.