Abstract EN:

This thesis in Cognitive Science aims at both identifying the cognitive processes involved in route planning and providing ergonomic specifications for navigational systems dedicated to support drivers route planning. We conducted two experiments in which participants were asked to plan an itinerary through an extended modem city environment, in which they were expected to complete 14 tasks with spatial constraints and some with temporal constraints. We analysed if participants mental representations and strategies were affected by specific environment knowledge (we considered two groups : persons with and persons without specific environment knowledge), tasks being constrained temporally (presence or absence of temporal constraints), and planning duration (short or long). Participants with knowledge tend to reduce the cognitive cost of plan execution, not that of planning. They tend to consider the spatial aspect of the problem (definition of routes to follow in function of the urban network) before its temporal aspects (respect of the temporal constraints). They tend to apply a travel time optimisation and to take into account numerous additional constraints in order to define a realistic plan. Participants without knowledge tend to reduce the cognitive cost of planning, as they aim to solve the problem as quickly as possible. They tend to consider the temporal aspects of the problem before its spatial aspect and to apply a travel distance optimisation. However, confronted with tasks without temporal constraints, with a long planning duration and provided with precisions on the urban network, they tend to integrate the urban network constraints in the development of a global solution of their journey, as do persons with knowledge. On the basis of these results and of an ergonomic analysis of navigational and planning aid systems, we formulate some ideas with respect to onboard navigational aid systems that might support drivers in their planning activities.