Spatial Thinking and Reasoning

空间思维和推理在大多数知识领域都很常见。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地理空间数据库普遍存在的领域也很重要。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。贝克和乌塔尔等心理学家已经认识到空间思维和推理对解决某些类型问题的特殊贡献，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方式都无法比拟的视角。本研究旨在建构空间任务本体论与概念词汇，以协助学生发展空间思维与推理。研究者将定义空间思维，并确定一系列任务，这些任务将帮助人们理解日常生活中空间思维和推理的本质和重要性。任务本体将识别不同级别和类型的任务，从那些设计用于识别空间原语的任务，并将说明如何将这些原语扩展到离散的级别。层次从简单的衍生到更复杂的原语和衍生的多重组合，形成复杂的概念，如地理关联和空间插值。经过详细阐述，这些概念有助于理解日常活动，例如学习到小学的路线，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实证工作相结合。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，以评估培养对日常生活中嵌入的空间概念的理解是否会丰富对社区、城市、地区、国家和世界的地理理解。这个项目将探索人们如何组织他们对空间的思考方式，以及他们在面对空间信息时使用的思考和推理形式。这项研究应阐明对地理概念的进一步理解如何影响空间信息的综合，并将说明地理概念的正式培训所产生的差异。从地理知识的形式化到更有效的地理信息系统的开发，所有这些发展都具有智力意义。这个项目将影响未来地理信息系统的发展，并有助于确定在各级进行更有效地理教育的新策略。

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.