This is the idea of mental schemas that reflect a person’s ideas about the spatial organization of the surrounding world. Such maps help to navigate the environment and make decisions based on accumulated experience. Maps are formed in the process of human interaction with the environment. They model not only spatial relationships (“where everything is”), but also temporal relationships (“when something happens”) and even abstract connections between objects and phenomena. The term “cognitive map” was proposed by the American psychologist Edward Tolman in 1948 in his work “Cognitive Maps in Rats and Man” (see Tolman, Edward Chace (1886-1959) in Chapter 5 Famous Scientists, Their Scientific Schools and Organizations in Psychological Science). There are two main types of cognitive maps:1) Path map – represents a sequence of routes and landmarks, helps to move from point to point along a familiar path.2) Observation map – gives a holistic view of the spatial structure of the environment, a person sees the general picture of the location of objects. This type of map allows you to plan new routes and find alternative paths to the goal.
In humans, cognitive maps are more complex than in animals: they include not only spatial information, but also symbolic elements.