{"pk":26670,"title":"Does GIScience Training Enhance Spatial Navigation Ability?","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Research on the reciprocal influence of spatial thinking and GIScience training is limited (Wakabayashi & Ishikawa,2011). In the current project, we examine improvement in spatial navigation in undergraduates enrolled in GIS classes over thecourse of a semester. Students enrolled in strategic communications (SC), a low-spatial content class, were used as a controlgroup. Fifty students were trained and tested at 2 time points – beginning and end of a semester – in a virtual navigationtask (Silcton; Weisberg, et. al., 2014). We hypothesize that a significantly higher number of GIS students as compared toSC students will be Integrators i.e. they will find the most targets within-route and between-route in the virtual environment.Furthermore, we hypothesize that GIS students will show a significantly greater improvement at time point 2 as compared toSC students. This research has important implications for spatial training and educational pedagogy in STEM disciplines.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[],"section":"Member Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wx79396","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Annisa","middle_name":"","last_name":"Ahmed","name_suffix":"","institution":"Temple University","department":""},{"first_name":"Alina","middle_name":"","last_name":"Nazareth","name_suffix":"","institution":"Temple University","department":""},{"first_name":"Danielle","middle_name":"","last_name":"Burnetta","name_suffix":"","institution":"Temple University","department":""},{"first_name":"Magda","middle_name":"","last_name":"Abozeed","name_suffix":"","institution":"Temple University","department":""},{"first_name":"Nora","middle_name":"","last_name":"Newcombe","name_suffix":"","institution":"Temple University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2016-01-01T18:00:00Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/26670/galley/16306/download/"}]}