Marsh et al.'s tests of appropriate spatial relationship concepts were administered to groups of college students to determine whether learning GIS enhances students' overall ability to generate and recognize fundamental spatial relationship concepts. 119 undergraduate students enrolled in various GIS courses and in non-GIS courses participated in the study. We found that learning GIS helps enhance students' ability to generate and recognize some spatial concepts, those explicitly learned in relation to the tools and functions of GIS software. The result indicates that students' understanding of many of the spatial relationship concepts are acquired incidentally rather than explicitly or intentionally.