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Cognitive Science

Cognitive science is the discipline or collection of disciplines that scientifically studies knowledge and knowing in intelligent entities, including humans, nonhuman animals, and synthetic computational entities, such as robots. Cognition includes perception, thinking, learning, memory, reasoning and problem solving, and linguistic and nonlinguistic communication. Increasingly, researchers also integrate the study of affective responses—emotion—into the study of cognition. Questions about cognition are interesting in their own right, but researchers also study cognition because it influences, and is influenced by, overt behavior. For example, what we know about the layout of the environment influences where we choose to travel, while exploratory movements to new locations provide us with knowledge about the layout of that environment. This entry explains the relevance of cognitive science to geographic information science and presents several theoretical approaches for the scientific study of cognition.

Cognitive science is inherently multidisciplinary, and to the degree that new concepts and methods have emerged from the interaction of different disciplines, it is interdisciplinary. Traditionally, since it began in the 1950s, the core disciplines constituting cognitive science have included experimental psychology (particularly cognitive and perceptual), philosophy of mind, linguistics, neuroscience, and computer and information science. Several other disciplines have developed cognitive approaches and contributed to the diverse array of methods and topics in cognitive science, including anthropology, biology, education, engineering, mathematics, physics, and more.

Cognition in Geographic Information Science

Cognitive science, particularly as it concerns itself with human cognition, is an important component of geographic information science. Geographic information is used to help us understand and make decisions about the earth's surface and the spatiotemporal and thematic attributes of the natural and human features and events occurring there. The study of cognition within geographic information science is theoretically motivated by the fact that human understanding and decision making with geographic information are cognitive acts. Likewise, cognition is often related to space, place, and environment; that is, cognitive acts are often geographic. Therefore, cognition is part of the domain of geographic information science, and geography and geographic information are likewise part of the domain of cognitive science.

Specific cognitive issues in geographic information science include the relationship between computer representations (data models, database structures) and cognitive representations of space, place, and environment (cognitive or mental maps, mental models); the design of information displays, including visual and nonvisual displays, and augmented and virtual reality; the communication of complex information about data quality, scale, change over time, and abstract and multivariate information, such as semantic relatedness (as in spatialized displays of nonspatial information); the human factors of navigation and other information systems; the interoperability of information systems across cultures and other domains of conceptual variation; training and education in geography, geographic information science, and related disciplines; and more.

Practically, the study of cognition is motivated by the desire to improve the usability, efficiency, equity, and profitability of geographic information and geographic information systems. Cognitive research holds the promise of improving a wide variety of geographic information systems, including education and training programs, in-vehicle and personal navigation systems, digital geographic libraries, tourism and museum information systems, and systems for those with sensory disabilities. Furthermore, by helping to tailor information systems to different individuals and cultures, cognitive research can potentially increase information access and the equitable dissemination of technologies. Such research may help inexperienced users gain access to geographic information technologies and help experienced users gain power and efficiency in their use of technologies. Cognitive research can also improve education in geography and geographic information at all age and expertise levels.

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