Research in the cognition of geographic information deals with human perception, memory, reasoning, and communication involving the spatiotemporal and thematic attributes of objects and events, both in the real world and in digital representations. Basic research in geographic cognition is relevant to many issues involving geographic information: data collection and storage, graphic representation and interface design, spatial analysis, interoperability, decision-making, the societal context of GIS, and more. We believe that many aspects of geographic information system usability, efficiency, and profitability can be improved by greater attention to cognitive research.
A growing number of researchers are addressing cognitive questions about geographic information. Such work stems from a research tradition begun primarily in the 1950s and 1960s by behavioral geographers, cartographers, urban planners, and environmental psychologists. Behavioral geographers began developing theories and models of the human reasoning and decision-making involved in spatial behavior, such as migration, vacationing, and daily travel. Cartographers initiated research on how maps and map symbols are perceived and understood by map users, both expert and novice. Planners began to study how humans perceive and learn about built environments, in order to improve their design. Finally, environmental psychologists refocused traditional questions about psychological processes and structures to understand how they operate in built and natural environments, such as public buildings, neighborhoods, cities, and wilderness areas.
During the decades since the 1960s, several additional disciplines within the behavioral and cognitive sciences have contributed their own research questions and methodologies to this topic. Within research psychology, the subfields of perceptual, cognitive, developmental, educational, industrial/organizational, and social psychology have all conducted research on questions relating to how humans acquire and use spatial and nonspatial information about the world. Architects have joined planners in an attempt to improve the design of built environments through an understanding of human cognition in and of those environments. Both linguists and anthropologists have conducted research on human language and conceptualization about space and place. Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers within computer science and other disciplines have developed simulations of spatial intelligence, in some cases as part of the design of mobile robots.
More recently, within the past five to ten years, an interest in geographic cognition has developed within the geographic information community, a community that now includes many of the disciplines described above. The Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT) takes place every two years since 1993, bringing together researchers from several different countries and disciplines to discuss cognitive aspects of geographic information. The National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) has sponsored several workshops and research initiatives dealing with questions of human cognition; examples include I-2 on "Languages of Spatial Relations", I-10 on "Spatio-temporal Reasoning", and I-21 on "Formal Models of Common Sense Geographic Worlds". In its current form, the NCGIA's Project Varenius is composed of three research panels. One of the panels is "Cognitive Models of Geographic Space". It in turn is comprised of three specialist topics: "Scale and Detail in the Cognition of Geographic Information", "Cognition of Dynamic Phenomena and Their Representation", and "Multiple Modes and Multiple Frames of Reference for Spatial Knowledge". These specialist meetings are taking place during 1998 and 1999.
Researchers participating in these meetings and others have begun to address a host of issues at the intersection between geographic information and cognition. How do humans learn geographic information, and how does this learning vary as a function of the medium through which it occurs (direct experience, maps, descriptions, virtual systems, etc.)? What are the most natural and effective ways of designing interfaces for geographic information systems? How do people develop concepts and reason about geographical space, and how does this vary as a function of training and experience? Given the ways people understand geographic concepts, do some models for representing information in digital form support or hinder the effective use of that information? How do people use and understand language about space, and about objects and events in space? How can complex geographical information be depicted to promote comprehension and effective decision-making, whether through maps, models, graphs, or animations? How and why do individuals differ in their cognition of geographic information, perhaps because of their age, culture, sex, or specific backgrounds? Can geographic information technologies aid in the study of human cognition? How does exposure to new geographic information technologies alter human ways of perceiving and thinking about the world?
This description of topics and questions makes it clear that research on the cognition of geographic information has strong ties with other research priorities proposed by the UCGIS. Several of the priorities, including "Representations", "Scale", "Spatial Analysis", and "Uncertainty", deal in part with questions of the representation and depiction of complex spatio-temporal information. In all cases, important research needs to be done on how to communicate this information accurately and effectively. Both "Interoperability" and "GIS and Society" involve concerns about sharing geographic information between distinct groups of users, and about social decision-making processes that depend in part on how information is understood by and communicated between participants in groups. These ties with other UCGIS priorities further suggest the importance of research on geographic cognition.
The UCGIS will promote progress on these research issues in several ways. Most importantly, the UCGIS will provide coordination and facilitate communication among the several disciplines that have relevant contributions to make. By promoting cognitive research, and printing and disseminating material such as this research agenda, the UCGIS will create a critical focus on issues of geographic information science for the disparate disciplines and research programs. This focus currently exists only among a small number of potentially relevant researchers; most such researchers are largely unaware of the importance of their work to issues of geographic information science. And more than create a focus, the UCGIS approach will go far towards prioritizing the research issues. By identifying these priorities and dispersing findings from this research, the UCGIS will help ensure that cumulative progress is made.
Research on geographic cognition is important to many areas of high priority within the national research and development agenda. An understanding of how humans conceptualize geographic features and information will support attempts to create geographic information standards and promote interoperability of systems, including distributed information systems. Good examples of this include national and international data standards, and current attempts to create digital geographic libraries. Research on geographic cognition will improve the functionality and dissemination of many information technologies, including data capture technologies, geographic information systems, and intelligent transportation systems. It will also play a major role in improving the effectiveness of geographic education at all levels.
Inadequate attention to cognitive issues is a major impediment to the fulfillment of the potential of geographic information technologies to benefit society. Cognitive research will lead to improved systems that take advantage of an understanding of human geographic perception and conception, including that of spatial and geographic "experts". It will undoubtedly aid in the design of improved user interfaces and query languages. The possibility that it might lead to improvements in representations, operations, or data models is very real and should be investigated as well. In any case, a geographic information technology that is more responsive to human factors in its design will potentially greatly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of GIS. It will promote more equitable access to information and to technologies by allowing us to respond to differences among users. Thus, relatively inexperienced or disadvantaged users will gain access to geographic information technologies, and experienced or expert users will gain power and efficiency in their use of the technologies. Finally, cognitive research holds great promise for the advance of education in geography and geographic information at all levels. This includes both traditional general concerns about the poor state of geographic knowledge in the populace, and more specific concerns, such as education about the critical issues of global and environmental change, or extracting the concepts and approaches of geographic information experts.
An example is the design of In-Vehicle Navigation Systems (IVNS), part of the broader topic of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Research has shown that the effectiveness of IVNS placed in automobiles depends on the modality and format in which information is depicted to the driver. For most drivers, verbal instructions have been shown to lead to faster processing and fewer errors than map depictions. Maps are useful in certain circumstances, however. Further research will help determine which types of features are most useful to be included in computer generated instructions and how these features should be described. Other research has shown that the orientation of in-vehicle maps is critical; software and hardware must be implemented to support realtime realignment of digital maps during travel. Again, additional research will help determine the best way to design these maps to optimize communication of geographic information for the automobile traveler.
Another example concerns digital geographic library systems. Basic research on the human conception of geographic features is needed to design interfaces that optimally support queries to the system. It is clear that this will depend a great deal on the user's level of training and experience in geographic information. Cartographers, earth scientists, and schoolchildren all have different needs in this respect. Future research will help determine efficient methods of allowing for these differences in the design of digital libraries and their interfaces.
Several specific research questions can be identified as being of high priority at this time. The geographic information sciences can make considerable progress on the following questions within a 3-5 year time frame:
* Are there limitations of current data models that result from their inconsistencies with human cognitive models of space, place, and environment? What benefits could be derived from reducing these inconsistencies? Are there alternative data models that would be more understandable to novices or experts? Research on categorization indicates that humans understand what is essentially a continuous physical world in terms of discrete objects and places. How can the nature of human categories be incorporated into GIS? How do limitations of human categorization impact our ability to reason with geographic information? Self-report inventories and memory tests will help answer these questions, including sorting and category identification tasks. * How can IVNS interfaces for wayfinding be designed and implemented in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency for tasks such as route choice and the production of navigation information? Examination of errors and response times during the use of alternative systems will provide information on the strengths and weaknesses of particular designs.
* How can natural language be incorporated into GIS? How should it be? Possibilities to investigate are interpretation of natural language queries, automated input of natural language data, and automated output of natural language instructions. Linguistic and psycholinguistic studies research methods can be focused on issues of geographic and spatial language.
* Spatial metaphors are frequently used to express nonspatial information ("spatialization"). For example, there is much interest in representing the semantic space of documents as a place or landscape. How can such metaphors best be used to represent and manipulate information? Both the speed and correctness of interpretations of spatializations can be tested, as well as the nature of the information browsing and searches they engender.
* How can GIS be used to represent and communicate important information in novel ways? Examples include information about error and uncertainty, scale and scale changes, and temporal information and process (as in animation). Performance measures can be collected on geographic tasks that require subjects to interpret the meanings of particular depictions of error, scale relationships, or temporal change.
* What are the possible applications of immersive virtual-environment (VE) technologies to the exploration of information with GIS? What is the relationship of a VE format to traditional cartographic representations? Understanding the impact of such new media requires both systematic comparison to existing media and strategies for understanding novel experiential situations. Again, knowledge tests can be administered after exposure to VE representations, and compared to exposure to traditional map or verbal representations.
* How can geographic information technology be used to improve education in geography, and other earth and space-related disciplines? Conversely, how does research on child and adult learning and development inform us about the nature of human cognitive models, which in turn may have implications for the design of information technologies? What are ways of educating adults and children so that they have a better understanding of geographic information concepts and better access to its technologies?
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Original White Paper by Daniel R. Montello, University of California, Santa Barbara, January 1997.
Revised Version by Daniel R. Montello;
Scott Freundschuh, University of Minnesota, Duluth;
Sucharita Gopal, Boston University;
Stephen C. Hirtle, University of Pittsburgh;
June 1998.