Mental Maps

Spatial information about the world, carried in one’s mind. Studies in behavioral geography have shown that all humans utilize mental maps, although to varying degrees and at different levels of ability. The formation of a mental map is generally a subconscious process and begins at an early age. This “brain cartography” provides a means of organizing our activities, recognizing our “home” terrain, and negotiating through places that are new and unfamiliar.Without the ability to form mental maps, humans would lack the capacity to venture forth to locate food (done today at a local supermarket, but only a few thousand years ago in a field or forest), find a mate, and other vital behaviors—in other words, the formation of mental maps is crucial to human survival. The average person forms a mental map through experience—as one explores an unfamiliar landscape, various spatial “cues” or markers are noted and recorded, providing points of reference that later can be recalled when encountered again. The process works exactly the same way, whether one is exploring a highly organized and complex urban environment or a pristine wilderness. Street signs in a city provide the same type of mental benchmark as an unusual looking tree, a spring, or a pile of rocks does in a forest—both allow an individual to organize and traverse a new spatial environment. As that environment is repeatedly encountered, new features are added to the “map,” and the level of detail increases.

Scholars of behavioral geography are especially interested in mental maps, because such maps form the core of spatial perception and reveal a great deal about how people view the world around them, as well as the world at large. The mental maps one carries may play a significant role in the formation of cultural identity, as well as how other regions are perceived. Studies have shown that nation-states emphasize the development of a more detailed domestic mental map among students in their public school systems than mental maps they form of adjacent countries, even in students who live adjacent to international boundaries. Views of regions that are not precisely defined provide interesting insight into spatial perception. For example, the boundaries of the “Deep South’ in the United States vary considerably, depending on where the question is asked. The mental maps of the “South” that the average resident of Alabama holds will differ markedly from that held by a resident of Nebraska. Interestingly, many people form mental maps not only about places they have encountered, but also about places they have not yet been to. These sorts of maps may be formed from media reports or other sources of information that are not geographical, yet in many cases people form a spatial concept from them. Some research has found, for example, that a significant number of people link spatial extent to the frequency of hearing information about a place, so that the greater the times a country is mentioned in the media, for example, the larger it is perceived to be.