Simulating navigation behaviour based on the architecture model Model Human Processor with Real-Time Constraints (MHP/RT)

Navigation behaviour is characterised by a strong interaction between the navigating agent (i.e. human beings) and the environment in which the navigation occurs. As the interaction is time critical, a theory for understanding the navigation behaviour must be capable of simulating navigation along the time dimension. This article introduces the Model Human Processor with Real-Time Constraints (MHP/RT; Toyota, M. and Kitajima, M., 2010a. MHP/RT: model human processor with real time constraints. In: S. Ohlsson and R. Catrambone, eds., Proceedings of the 32nd annual conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society, 529.) as an architecture model for simulating the human navigation behaviour. MHP/RT was created by combining two seminal works in different fields that deal with human behaviour. The first work is the Model Human Processor (MHP) in the field of applied psychology (Card, S.K., Moran, T.P., and Newell, A., 1983. The psychology of human–computer interaction. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.). MHP successfully simulates the human users' operating information devices to accomplish computerised tasks. The other work focuses on Two Minds that operate in human beings' economical decisions (Evans, J.S.B.T. and Frankish, K., eds., 2009. In Two Minds: dual processes and beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.). This is the basis of the field of behaviour economics founded by D. Kahneman. This study demonstrates how MHP/RT simulates people's navigation behaviour by drawing a concrete example of navigation in a train station. The results of an observational study that was conducted independently of MHP/RT are introduced and further examined by running the processes defined in MHP/RT. The results of the observed navigation behaviour can be plausibly simulated by MHP/RT, confirming the validity of MHP/RT.