Progress in Domestic Research on Spatial Cognition in Human Geography

Spatial cognition is a type of subjective experience, which not only reflects the subjective mapping of material space but also represents the interaction between geographic space and the cognitive subject. Since the humanistic turn in the middle of the last century, human geographers have turned to think about the relationship between subjective cognition and the environment. The core concepts and meanings of spatial cognition in the field of human economics and geography are summarized on the basis of domestic studies. Four major topics of spatial cognition, including the subject and object of spatial cognition, spatial cognitive structure, spatial cognitive process, and the externalization of spatial cognition, were induced and discussed. Three important characteristics of spatial cognition studies in the field of human geography in China are illustrated: (1) the notion of spatial cognition is developing and deepening, from a static understanding to a combination of static and dynamic understandings; (2) the research content and structure are constantly developing and improving; and (3) the research paradigm is increasingly localized, showing four important changes: the research subject changing from a single social subject to multiple interest subjects, the research scale changing from traditional urban space to functional urban space, the unit of object space changing from urban space to village and township space, and the research method changing from qualitative method to a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.