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Learning to Think Spatially (2006) / Chapter Skim
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PART I: THE NATURE AND FUNCTIONS OF SPATIAL THINKING --2 The Nature of Spatial Thinking
Pages 23-48

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From page 23...
... Part I The Nature and Functions of Spatial Thinking
From page 25...
... In this chapter, the committee describes and explains spatial thinking in more detail. It begins in Section 2.2 by looking at the current understanding of spatial thinking, distinguishing it from narrower concepts such as spatial ability, and viewing it as a means of problem solving.
From page 26...
... Thus, there are many related concepts in use: we speak about spatial ability, spatial reasoning, spatial cognition, spatial concepts, spatial intelligence, environmental cognition, cognitive mapping, and mental maps (see for example, Eliot, 1987; Gardner, 1983; Golledge and Stimson, 1997; Gould and White, 1974; Kitchin, 1994; Kitchin and Freundschuh, 2000; Newcombe and Huttenlocher, 2000; Portugali, 1996; Tversky, 2000a,b)
From page 27...
... . By linking spatial knowledge, spatial ways of thinking and acting, and spatial capabilities with this general spatial attitude, we have a flexible and powerful way of thinking that is transferable to and applicable in a wide range of contexts in everyday life, the workplace, and science.
From page 28...
... . On the other hand, spatial thinking allows us to externalize these operations by creating spatial representations in a range of media, forms, and sensory modalities: tactile maps or graphs, auditory maps, vibrotactile surfaces, traditional cartographic maps, two-dimensional graphs, link or flow diagrams, tree diagrams of hierarchical relations, three-dimensional (3-D)
From page 29...
... Variously called spatial perception, environmental cognition, cognitive mapping, and so forth, in this context spatial thinking is a means of coming to grips with the static and dynamic spatial relations between and among self and other objects in the physical environment. The domain of concern is locations defined on the surface and near-surface of Earth, at resolutions between millimeters and hundreds of kilometers.
From page 30...
... This approach has taken on new significance in the form of tools for visually exploring complex data sets, where software converts data into spatial forms, calculates distance metrics, displays the outcomes graphically, and supports the exploration of data sets using visualization methods. Figure 2.4 shows a concept map of the utility of data sources for constructing a map of gravitational anomalies that can be used to understand the deep geological structure of Earth.
From page 31...
... 122. 2.3.3 Spatialization These contexts for thinking spatially -- life spaces, physical spaces, and intellectual spaces-are not independent of one another.
From page 32...
... Much of the remainder of the data, although nonspatial in its original manifestation, can be spatialized. By embedding and representing these data in spaces, we can bring powerful spatial reasoning procedures to bear and therefore solve problems (see Box 2.1)
From page 33...
... It is a dynamic process that allows us to describe, explain, and predict the structure and functions of objects and their relationships in real and imagined spatial worlds. It allows us to generate hypotheses, to make predictions, and to test their consequences.
From page 34...
... Common spatial concepts such as distance, direction, scale, and arrangement which are part of the human's experience in everyday life are applied to construct abstract information spaces." She applies these ideas to the information about places stored in the Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) collection (http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu)
From page 35...
... "The design of this direct manipulation interface is based on three spatial concepts, including distance (similarity) , scale (level of detail)
From page 36...
... We can think about spatial structure and spatial operations from a number of perspectives, each of which is built from a root metaphor. For example, geography and cartography give us the map as a way of describing, representing, and understanding spatial relations.
From page 37...
... 3. The third step allows us to derive a series of spatial concepts from the (spatial or temporal)
From page 38...
... Because latitude and longitude coordinates are not well understood by most people, the coordinate information is converted to a local coordinate system. The second module consists of a laptop computer with GIS software that includes a digitized spatial database, a routine for locating the GPS coordinate on the local base map, and a set of FIGURE 2.8 Three modules of the Personal Guidance System.
From page 39...
... With repeated experience of a route and with changes in the buffer size, the traveler can build up an increasingly detailed mental map of the environment (Figure 2.9)
From page 40...
... . Any complex spatial reasoning task, such as comprehending a weather map or planning a route, will use several components in concert.
From page 41...
... It continues by describing the properties of transformations that can be performed on either external stimuli or mental representations. Then the committee turns to issues such as the process of complex spatial reasoning, the role of distortions in spatial thinking, using spatial thinking in abstract domains, and spatial thinking using external diagrammatic representations as opposed to internal mental representations.
From page 42...
... . Important spatial evaluations and comparisons that depend on relating an entity to a reference frame or comparing two entities are · determining orientation, · determining location, · assessing distance, · comparing size, · comparing color, · comparing shape, · comparing texture, · comparing location, · comparing direction, and · comparing other attributes.
From page 43...
... Transformations of Representations of Entities These encoding operations establish mental representations of the spatial world. A powerful feature of spatial thinking is transforming, manipulating, and operating on representations.
From page 44...
... Several transformations are of special significance because skill in performing them correlates with performance on complex spatial reasoning tasks. Notably, mental rotation or changing orientation (Shepard and Cooper, 1982)
From page 45...
... . The periodic table, flow diagrams in heat transfer and computer programs, and the "solar system" model of atoms are but some of the spatial representations used to summarize and organize abstract information.
From page 46...
... (Ways to facilitate transfer are discussed in Chapter 4.5.) Role of External Spatial Representations in Spatial Thinking Note that many of the previous examples (e.g., the periodic table, flow diagrams, molecular models)
From page 47...
... The first and easiest step is extracting spatial structures. This process of pattern description involves identifying relations between the components of a spatial representation and understanding them in terms of the parts and wholes that give rise to patterns and coherent wholes.
From page 48...
... It is fundamental to problem solving in a variety of contexts: in life spaces, physical spaces, and intellectual spaces. In each case, it can offer increasingly powerful understandings, moving from description through analysis to inference.


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