Spatial Thinking and Reasoning

空间思维和推理是大多数知识领域所共有的。它是地理学和其他地球科学的核心，在从天文学到动物学等领域都很重要，地理空间数据库很常见。其他知识领域，如舞蹈、音乐、绘画、雕塑、遗传学、生物学、物理学和语言学，都需要空间思维和使用空间隐喻。空间思维和推理在解决某些类型的问题方面的特殊贡献已经被贝克和乌塔尔等心理学家所认识，他们声称准备和使用信息的空间表示（如地图，图表和图像）提供了一种其他任何手段都无法比拟的视角。本研究的目的是发展一个空间任务本体和一个概念词典，以帮助空间思维和推理的发展。研究人员将定义空间思维，并确定一系列任务，以帮助人们理解空间思维和推理在日常生活中的性质和重要性。任务本体将识别不同层次和类型的任务，从那些旨在识别空间图元，并将说明这些图元可以扩展到离散的水平。层次从简单的派生到更复杂的多个基元和派生组合，以形成复杂的概念，如地理关联和空间插值。当被详细阐述时，这些概念有助于理解日常活动，例如学习上小学的路线，选择居住的社区，或选择工作，购物或享受娱乐活动的地方。该项目旨在将空间本体论的理论工作与日常经验世界中空间任务表现的经验工作相结合。为了实现该项目的目标，将在实验室和现场环境中开发和测试一系列创新任务，以评估对日常生活中嵌入的空间概念的理解是否会导致对邻里，城市，地区，国家，这个项目将探索人们组织他们对空间的思考方式以及他们在空间中使用的思维和推理形式。面对空间信息。本研究将阐明地理概念理解的增强如何影响空间信息的综合，并将说明地理概念正式培训所产生的差异。所有这些发展都涉及知识方面的问题，从地理知识的正规化到更有效的地理信息系统的开发。该项目将影响地理信息系统未来改进的发展，并有助于确定各级更有效的地理教育的新战略。

Spatial thinking and reasoning is common to most knowledge domains. It is central to geography and other geosciences, and it is important in domains ranging from astronomy to zoology where geospatial databases are common. Other knowledge areas, such as dance, music, painting, sculpture, genetics, biology, physics, and linguistics, all require spatial thinking and use spatial metaphors. The peculiar contribution of spatial thinking and reasoning to solve certain types of problems has been recognized by psychologists like Beck and Uttal, who claimed that preparing and using spatial representations of information (as in maps, graphs, and images) provides a perspective that is not matched by any other means. The purpose of this research project is to develop a spatial task ontology and a concept lexicon to assist in the development of spatial thinking and reasoning. The investigator will define spatial thinking and identify sets of tasks that will help people understand the nature and importance of spatial thinking and reasoning in everyday life. The task ontology will identify different levels and types of tasks ranging from those designed to identify spatial primitives and will illustrate how such primitives can be expanded into discrete levels. The levels range from simple derivations to more complex multiple combinations of primitives and derivations to form complex concepts, such as geographic association and spatial interpolation. When elaborated, these concepts assist in the understanding of everyday activities, such as learning a route to primary school, choosing a neighborhood in which to live, or selecting places to work, shop, or enjoy recreational activities. This project aims to synthesize theoretical work on spatial ontology with empirical work on spatial task performance in the world of everyday experience. To achieve the project's objectives, sets of innovative tasks will be developed and tested in both laboratory and field settings to evaluate whether or not developing an understanding of spatial concepts embedded in everyday living leads to enriched geographic understanding of neighborhood, city, region, nation, and the world.This project will explore the ways that people organize the ways they think about space and the forms of thinking and reasoning that they use when they are confronted with spatial information. The research should shed light on how enhanced understanding of geographic concepts influences the comprehensive of spatial information, and it will illustrate differences that result from formal training in geographic concepts. All of these developments have intellectual implications ranging from the formalization of geographic knowledge to the development of more effective geographic information systems. This project will influence the development of future enhancements of geographic information systems, and it could help identify new strategies for more effective geographic education at all levels.