Editing Cognitive map (section)

== Overview ==
Cognitive maps have been studied in various fields, such as psychology, education, archaeology, planning, geography, cartography, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, management and history.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |author=((World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience)) |title=Cognitive Maps, Mind Maps, and Concept Maps: Definitions |url=https://www.nngroup.com/articles/cognitive-mind-concept/ |access-date=2020-04-06 |website=Nielsen Norman Group |language=en}}</ref> Because of the broad use and study of cognitive maps, it has become a colloquialism for almost any mental representation or model.<ref name=":0" /> As a consequence, these mental models are often referred to, variously, as cognitive maps, [[mental map]]s, [[Behavioral script|scripts]], [[Schema (psychology)|schemata]], and [[Spatial cognition|frame of reference]].

Cognitive maps are a function of the working brain that humans and animals use for movement in a new environment. They help us in recognizing places, computing directions and distances, and in critical-thinking on shortcuts. They support us in wayfinding in an environment, and act as blueprints for new technology. {{cn|date=March 2025}}

Cognitive maps serve the construction and accumulation of spatial knowledge, allowing the "[[mind's eye]]" to visualize images in order to reduce [[cognitive load]], enhance [[Recollection|recall]] and [[learning]] of information. This type of spatial thinking can also be used as a metaphor for non-spatial tasks, where people performing non-spatial tasks involving [[memory]] and imaging use spatial knowledge to aid in processing the task.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kitchin |first=Robert M. |year=1994 |title=Cognitive maps: what are they and why study them? |url=http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/5405/1/RK_cognitive%20maps.pdf |journal=[[Journal of Environmental Psychology]] |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=1–19 |doi=10.1016/S0272-4944(05)80194-X}}</ref> They include information about the spatial relations that objects have among each other in an environment and they help us in orienting and moving in a setting and in space.

They are internal representation, they are not a fixed image, instead they are a schema, dynamic and flexible, with a degree of personal level. A spatial map needs to be acquired according to a frame of reference. Because it is independent from the observer's point of view, it is based on an allocentric reference system— with an object-to-object relation. It codes configurational information, using a world-centred coding system. {{cn|date=March 2025}}

The [[neural correlate]]s of a cognitive map have been speculated to be the [[place cell]] system in the [[hippocampus]]<ref name="O'Keefe">{{cite book |last1=O'Keefe |first1=John |url=http://www.cognitivemap.net/ |title=The hippocampus as a cognitive map |last2=Nadel |first2=Lynn |date=1978 |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]]; [[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0198572069 |location=Oxford; New York |oclc=4430731 |author-link1=John O'Keefe (neuroscientist) |author-link2=Lynn Nadel |access-date=2006-09-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927223151/http://www.cognitivemap.net/ |archive-date=2019-09-27 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Adam M. P. |last2=Jacob |first2=Alex D. |last3=Ramsaran |first3=Adam I. |last4=Snoo |first4=Mitchell L. De |last5=Josselyn |first5=Sheena A. |last6=Frankland |first6=Paul W. |date=2023-06-21 |title=Emergence of a predictive model in the hippocampus |url=https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(23)00207-6 |journal=Neuron |language=English |volume=111 |issue=12 |pages=1952–1965.e5 |doi=10.1016/j.neuron.2023.03.011 |issn=0896-6273 |pmid=37015224|pmc=10293047 }}</ref> and the recently discovered [[grid cells]] in the [[entorhinal cortex]].<ref name="pmid16675704">{{cite journal |last1=Sargolini |first1=Francesca |last2=Fyhn |first2=Marianne |last3=Hafting |first3=Torkel |last4=McNaughton |first4=Bruce L. |last5=Witter |first5=Menno P. |last6=Moser |first6=May-Britt |last7=Moser |first7=Edvard I. |date=May 2006 |title=Conjunctive representation of position, direction, and velocity in entorhinal cortex |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=312 |issue=5774 |pages=758–762 |bibcode=2006Sci...312..758S |doi=10.1126/science.1125572 |pmid=16675704 |doi-access=free}}</ref>