Spatial information acquisition happens in large part through the visual sense. Studying visual attention and its connection to cognitive processes has been the interest of many research efforts in spatial cognition over the years. Recent technological developments have led to an increasing popularity of eye-tracking methodology for investigating research questions related to spatial cognition, geographic information science (GIScience) and cartography. At the same time, eye trackers can nowadays be used as an input device for (cognitively engineered) user interfaces to geographic information. We provide an overview of the most recent literature advancing and utilizing eye-tracking methodology in these fields, introduce the research articles in this Special Issue, and discuss challenges and opportunities for future research.

空间信息获取大部分是通过视觉进行的。多年来，研究视觉注意力及其与认知过程的联系一直是空间认知领域许多研究工作的兴趣所在。最近的技术发展导致用于研究与空间认知，地理信息科学（GIScience）和制图有关的研究问题的眼动追踪方法越来越受欢迎。同时，眼动仪如今可以用作（认知设计的）地理信息用户界面的输入设备。我们概述了这些领域中发展和利用眼动追踪方法的最新文献，介绍了本期特刊中的研究文章，并讨论了未来研究的挑战和机遇。