Contemporary geographical information systems (GIS) embody a number of functions that are directly analogous to tasks humans normally perform in cognizing and evaluating space. Since GIS have become important tools for storing and analyzing spatially referenced information and have many practical applications in economic, social, and environmental planning, it is important that the configuration of knowledge in GIS accurately reflects the ways in which humans cognize space and internally represent environments. This research project poses the question of whether a cognitive representation of space is an internalized geographic information system. It will determine the degree to which selected processes involved in compiling and using GIS are similar to those involved in compiling and using cognitive maps. Emphasis will be placed on the type of reasoning and the inference required in both cognitive mapping and GIS and on how such processes can be understood and interpreted by people. Experiments will be designed to evaluate human competence in performing such activities as recognizing adjacency, connectivity, network membership, path selection criteria, conducting analysis and compilation of overlay and compression procedures, and undertaking neighborhood delineation and regionalization activities. It is not well understood how humans perform these activities nor what types of errors arise when performing them. Interdisciplinary research on spatial behavior by psychologists, cognitive scientists, roboticists, artificial intelligence engineers and transport modelers is increasing rapidly. Behavioral research into the design and use of geographic information systems and on such topics as visualization of spatial information, development of user interfaces and user friendly representation modes can help software and data base developers improve communication, analysis, and understanding with GIS. This project will identify theoretical and practical links between the processes of spatial cognition used generally in spatial knowledge acquisition and the spatial processing and analysis components which form the basis of many geographical information systems.
