Spatial thinking and dimensionality

Liben and Titus (this volume) provide a lucid account of spatial skills required of geoscientists. Geoscience studies three-dimensional (3-D) objects, and many representations of these objects are two dimensional (2-D). Accordingly, Liben and Titus provide multiple examples of cognitive processes that involve coordinating 3-D data and 2-D representations. This commentary further examines the dimensionality of space, and thus of spatial cognition. This is followed by a discussion of the importance and role of one-dimensional (1-D) space in geoscience cognition, and research about student knowledge and learning of 1-D space.