Spatial Cognition

Spatial cognition is usually defined as a process involving the sensing, encoding, storing, internal manipulation, decoding, and representing and using of information about the environment that is stored in long-term memory. While the field of spatial cognition is very broad and merits an encyclopedia of its own, this entry introduces some concepts of the field and illustrates their relationship to geographic information systems (GIS) and geographic information science (GISci).

It is generally hypothesized that humans learn about environments by sensing and experiencing them and thus are capable of encoding and storing data in long-term memory, manipulating data to create information (usually in working memory), and decoding the result and externally representing the construed information in some form of spatial product (e.g., map, diagram, graph, speech, writing, art, sculpture, dance, gesture). This collection of spatial information is used to form an individual's cognitive map. The cognitive map facilitates learning about environments and the spatial relationships among environmental features. The cognitive map and the foundations of spatial cognition are considered to be cultural universals and are analogous to the functionalities of GIS. This concept of universality in humans is based on the organizational similarities of the human nervous system among different cultures, common sensory and motor processes, similarities in learning processes, a universal need to cope with complex physical environments, the presence of processes needed for dealing with spatial relations and using spatial thinking and reasoning, use of multiple reference frames (egocentric, exocentric, and environment related), and the ability to deal with changes of scale in the spatial domain.

The existence of spatial cognition can be revealed by solving problems; performing tasks (e.g., navigation and wayfinding); being able to construct external representations (spatial products) of information encoded, stored, manipulated, and externalized; the effective use of spatial language to communicate; and the ability to spatialize nonspatial data or information (e.g., ages, income).

Montello has defined four scales of spatial awareness: microscale(the scale of nanotechnology or the microscope), figural scale (the scale of the environment within physical reach of the body), environmental scale(which includes the local perceptual environment through which one moves on a daily basis), and geographic scale(the scale that cannot be immediately perceived from any single viewpoint). Gigantic scale(the scale of the entire world or beyond) can be added to these. GISci concentrates primarily on environmental scales and above. Consequently, the term geocognition may be used as that subset of the more general process of spatial cognition that applies largely to the geographic scale. Since most geographic environments cannot be apprehended with a single glance, a single trip, or from a single viewpoint, environmental knowing must proceed by manipulating or integrating bits of sensed data stored in long-term memory and recalled for some particular purpose or by examining representations of geographic environments.

As detailed elsewhere in this volume, GIS are systems that include software and hardware that aids in representing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data. Two processes are important: the spatializations of nonspatial information (e.g., mapping nonspatial information, such as age, sex, and housing quality, into a set of regions) and geovisualization (the representation of digitized spatial or geospatial data for display on a computer screen or to generate maps, graphs, or images in hard-copy format). To accomplish these objectives, a GIS uses a variety of functionalities to order, arrange, represent, and analyze spatial information. There are many instances in which a one-to-one matching of GIS functionalities and traditional cognitive processes can be found. In one sense, therefore, GIS analyze and represent data in a digital environment in a way that matches how data are manipulated, decoded, and used in a cognitive environment.

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