Cognitive card

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Inner maps are less clearly structured than this example.

A cognitive map (also called mental map ) is the mental representation of a geographical area or spatially (three-dimensional) imaginable logical and other relationships.

In other words, cognitive maps are mentally simplified representations of multi-dimensional complex reality. The mapping of geographic reality is just one of many examples. The term is based on the assumption that people convert the information about rooms and landscapes into map- like images, so that cognitive maps can basically also be drawn. Each person has a different cognitive map of a space, on the one hand, because they are more familiar with their hometown and its surroundings than in areas that are unfamiliar to them; on the other hand, because every person perceives their environment differently based on their individual experience and mental state.

Experiments by EC Tolman (1930) suggested that animals not only store stimulus-response patterns when exploring space , but also a spatial representation of the environment that allows logical reasoning . Tolman developed the concept of the cognitive map based on this. However, his findings were later questioned and could not be replicated.

One way of representing cognitive maps is drawing from memory . The test person is asked to draw a map of his home town, another region or the whole world out of his head. This shows very well which areas he is familiar with (e.g. vacation area) and which he does not.

Kevin Lynch's research on cognitive maps is now part of the geography of perception , which deals with the subjective perception of spaces.

Features of cognitive maps

Cognitive maps are characterized, among other things, by the fact that they simplify real landscapes in several ways. These features come to light especially when people are asked to draw a familiar landscape as a map:

  • Straightening: "Crooked" landscape features (rivers, roads) are straightened in the mental imagination.
  • Right angles: We tend to think of intersection points at right angles . For this reason, it is easier for people to orientate themselves in right-angled networks of paths than in oblique angled ones.
  • North: The landscape is given a clear north-south-east-west orientation. So many imagine the Upper Rhine Graben as facing north-south, although it actually has a north-east-south-west course.

In addition, the world is mostly distorted on a cognitive map: areas that are known take up more space on the cognitive map and are depicted in more detail than unfamiliar spaces. This characteristic exemplifies Saul Steinberg's caricature View of the World from 9th Avenue .

After all, cognitive maps are characterized by the fact that certain landscape features and marker points “protrude” over the top.

rating

The concept of the cognitive map is described by various authors as misleading, as the idea that there is a “map-like” representation of the environment in the brain is wrong. The results of Tolman and others can be explained more sparingly with the exploration behavior of the rats in the labyrinth and the reinforcement processes that are effective in it . The cognitive map is therefore not a useful hypothesis to explain the behavior of people or animals in space. The term should be avoided.

See also

literature

Pioneering cognitive maps
Reviews of cognitive maps
  • Kevin Lynch: The image of the city . (1960), 2nd edition, Braunschweig / Wiesbaden 1989.
  • Roger M.Downs, David Stea: Cognitive Maps. The world in our heads . New York 1982.
  • Jörg Seifert: Cognitive map, mnemonic technology and mind mapping . Mentally locate spatial impressions, visualize knowledge structures, use imaginative spaces for learning . in: ALFA-FORUM. Journal for Literacy and Basic Education, 60/2005, pp. 32–34.
  • Norbert Götz and Janne Holmén: Introduction to the Theme Issue: 'Mental Maps: Geographical and Historical Perspectives'. Journal of Cultural Geography 25 (2018) 2: 157-161. doi : 10.1080 / 08873631.2018.1426953 .
Cognitive maps and how they can be influenced socially
  • Carbon, CC (2010): Cognitive continental drift: How attitudes can change the overall pattern of cognitive distances. Environment and Planning A, 42 (3), 715-728.
  • Carbon, CC, & Leder, H. (2005): The wall inside the brain: Overestimation of distances crossing the former iron curtain. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 12 (4), 746-750.
Cognitive Maps in History

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Edward C. Tolman; Charles H. Honzik: Degrees of hunger, reward, and non reward, and maze learning in rats . In: University of California Publications in Psychology . tape 4 , 1930, p. 241-256 .
  2. ↑ a b Edward C. Tolman; Charles H. Honzik: "Insight" in rats . In: University of California Publications in Psychology . tape 4 , 1930, p. 215-232 .
  3. ↑ a b Edward C. Tolman; Charles H. Honzik: Introduction and removal of reward, and maze performance in rats . In: University of California Publications in Psychology . tape 4 , 1930, p. 257-275 .
  4. ↑ a b Edward C. Tolman; BF Ritchie; D. Kalish: Studies in spatial learning. I. Orientation and the short-cut . In: Journal of Experimental Psychology . tape 36 , no. 1 , February 1946, p. 13-24 , doi : 10.1037 / h0053944 .
  5. ↑ Francine Ciancia: Tolman and Honzik (1930) revisited: or The mazes of psychology (1930-1980) . In: The Psychological Record . tape 41 , no. 4 , 1991, pp. 461–472 ( pagesperso-orange.fr [PDF; 913 kB ; accessed on August 13, 2014]).
  6. ^ David S. Olton: Mazes, maps, and memory . In: American Psychologist . tape 34 , no. 7 , July 1979, p. 583-596 , doi : 10.1037 / 0003-066X.34.7.583 .
  7. ^ Frank Restle: Discrimination of cues in mazes: A resolution of the "place-vs.-response" question . In: Psychological Review . tape 64 , no. 4 , July 1957, p. 217–228 , doi : 10.1037 / h0040678 , PMID 13453606 ( appstate.edu [PDF; 978 kB ; accessed on August 13, 2014]). Discrimination of cues in mazes: A resolution of the "place-vs.-response" question ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www1.appstate.edu
  8. ^ Robert Jensen: Behaviorism, latent learning and cognitive maps: Needed revisions in introductory psychology textbooks . In: The Behavior Analyst . tape 29 , no. 2 . Kalamazoo Mich 2006, p. 187-209 , PMC 2223150 (free full text).
  9. ^ Andrew TD Bennett: Do animals have cognitive maps? In: The Journal of Experimental Biology . tape 199 , no. 1 , 1996, ISSN  0022-0949 , pp. 219–224 ( biologists.org [PDF; 41 kB ; accessed on August 13, 2014]).