Andrea Nuernberger

spatial@ucsb Research Associate, 2007–2009

A former Research Associate at the Center for Spatial Studies and a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Andrea Nuernberger is currently employed as an Academic Specialist in the UC Education Abroad Program. Her research interests include spatial cognition and decision-making, Wayfinding, spatial information acquisition, and spatial information display. Her M.A. thesis, “A wearable geographic information system: General design principles and 2-D map display for navigation,” guided by Professor Keith Clarke, was primarily motivated by the desire to re-direct geographic research back into the field and make it less dependent on desktop computer infrastructures. Nuernberger’s Ph.D. dissertation (2008), “Presenting accessibility to mobility-impaired travelers” was guided by Professor Reginald Golledge. With this work she explored her interest in how people with mobility-impairments, particularly wheelchair users, acquire, use, and communicate access information when making spatial decisions and travel plans to unfamiliar destinations. In her post-doctoral research, Nuernberger pursued her interest in spatial cognition on the geographic scale and focused on the elderly population, with the goal of developing and implementing an instrument that evaluates people’s everyday spatial knowledge and abilities.