I frequently wonder if some folks are just not able to visualize a map and no amount of training is going to change that. I have worked with drawings my whole life, primarily machine drawings, but I can look at other drawings like architectural drawings and get a mental picture of what they are trying to show. I have seen many folks who when presented with the drawings for their new house do not have a clue as to what the final product will look like no matter how many time it is explained to them. Today even drawings are no longer a 2D representation of a 3D object. Today drawings are rendered as solids which can be rotated, moved and presented as pictures using CAD. Likewise maps are frequently presented as satellite images which are really just a picture as taken from an airplane. Many folks have no idea how to read a road map let alone a topo map.