Geospatial Thinking Framework

地理空间思维已经成为理解人类空间行为的一个重要焦点，但缺乏有意义的地理空间思维的定义、理论和模型。这一跨学科研究项目将通过检查地理空间思维的行为和神经学相关性来解决这些知识差距。地理空间思维主要是一种认知结构，发生在人脑中。该项目旨在开发一个健壮的模型，该模型将在行为和认知神经地理学方面奠定基础，并将代表一种概念化和研究地理空间思维的新方法。该项目将通过强调地理空间任务、问题和问题的生态有效性，为神经地理学提供不同于神经科学中更传统的空间认知研究的新见解。在这样做的时候，它将把重点放在地理空间活动在现实世界活动中的基础上，并将审议正在调查的问题的实地性质。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供特殊的研究和培训机会。研究人员将根据包括空间、时间和属性三个轴的综合地理空间思维框架为该项目生成研究问题。地理空间思维技能将根据类别(轴)和复杂性(相对于原点的位置)进行组织。将提出两个研究问题。每一种地理空间思维技能与框架轴所代表的地理原语之间有什么关系？每种地理空间思维技能的相对复杂性是什么，用距轴点的距离表示？这些研究问题将通过行为测试和神经成像(功能磁共振成像，fMRI)的组合方法进行调查。行为测试将包括传统的和新开发的地理空间认知任务绩效测量。将评估所有测量工具的可靠性和有效性(如果尚未提供)。功能磁共振成像方法将包括区块设计和事件相关设计。分析将集中于对整个大脑以及最感兴趣的大脑特定部分的血氧水平依赖信号的检测，这与背部和腹部的分析特别相关。

Geospatial thinking has become an important focus in understanding human spatial behaviors, but meaningful definitions, theories, and models of geospatial thinking are lacking. This interdisciplinary research project will address these gaps in knowledge by examining the behavioral and neurological correlates of geospatial thinking. Geospatial thinking is primarily a cognitive construct, occurring in the human brain. This project aims to develop a robust model that will have foundations in behavioral and cognitive neurogeography and will represent a new way to conceptualize and investigate geospatial thinking. This project will contribute new insights regarding neurogeography that are different from more traditional investigations of spatial cognition in neuroscience by placing emphasis on the ecological validity of geospatial tasks, issues, and questions. In doing so, it will focus on the grounding of geospatial activities in real-world activities and will consider the on-the-ground nature of the questions that are under investigation. The project will provide special research and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.The investigators will generate research questions for this project from a synthesized Geospatial Thinking Framework, which includes three axes: space, time, and attribute. Geospatial thinking skills will be organized based on category (the axes) and complexity (position relative to origin). Two research questions will be posed. What is the relationship between each geospatial thinking skill and the geographic primitives as represented by the framework axes? What is the relative complexity of each geospatial thinking skill as represented by distance from axes origin? These research questions will be investigated through a combined methodology of behavioral testing and neuroimaging (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, fMRI). Behavioral testing will include traditional and newly-developed measures of performance on geospatial cognition tasks. All measurement instruments will be assessed for reliability and validity (if not already available). The fMRI methods will include both block and event-related designs. Analysis will focus on the blood-oxygen-level dependent signal detection for both the whole brain as well as the specific parts of the brain of most interest, which is especially relevant for dorsal and ventral analyses.