Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space [Paperback]

This book contains twenty-eight papers by participants in the NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space, held in Las Navas del Maxques, Spain, July 8-20, 1990. The NATO ASI marked a stage in a two-year research project at the U. S. National Center for Geographic Infonnation and Analysis (NCOIA). In 1987, the U. S. National Science Foundation issued a solicitation for proposals to establish the NCGIA-and one element of that solicitation was a call for research on a fundamental theory of spatial relations . We felt that such a fundamental theory could be searched for in mathematics (geometry, topology) or in cognitive science, but that a simultaneous search in these two seemingly disparate research areas might produce novel results. Thus, as part of the NCGIA proposal from a consortium consisting of the University of California at Santa Barbara, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and the University of Maine, we proposed that the second major Research Initiative (two year, multidisciplinary research project) of the NCOIA would address these issues, and would be called Languages of Spatial Relations The grant to establish the NCOIA was awarded to our consortium late in 1988.Cognitive and Linguistic Aspects of Geographic Space: An Introduction.- Section 1: Geographic Space.- 1.1 Geographic Space as a Set of Concrete Geographical Entities.- 1.2 Some Notes on Geographic Information Systems: The Relationship Between their Practical Application and their Theoretical Evolution.- 1.3 A Hand-In-Glove Paradigm for Geography.- Section 2: Cultural Influences on the Conceptualization of Geographic Space.- 2.1 Through the Door: A View of Space from an Anthropological Perspective.- 2.2 Culture as Input and Output of the Cognitive-Linguistic Processes.- 2.3 Dialogic and Argumentative Structures of Bumper Stickers.- Section 3: Wayfinding and Spatial Cognition.- 3.1 The Development of the Abilities Required to UnderstandlT