On Reading Maps and Memory: Review of Canisia Lubrin's Voodoo Hypothesis (original) (raw)
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The" map in the head" metaphor
1982
Abstract The" Map in the Head" metaphor states that knowledge of large-scale space is isomorphic to the information stored in a graphical map: That is, corresponding operations are used to store and retrieve information. The purpose of this essay is to look carefully at the" Map in the Head" metaphor to see the limits of its applicability. There are two types of experimental results that are difficult to accommodate within this metaphor.
Cognitive Maps: Some People Make Them, Some People Struggle
Current Directions in Psychological Science
The proposal that humans can develop cognitive maps of their environment has a long and controversial history. We suggest an individual-differences approach to this question instead of a normative one. Specifically, there is evidence that some people derive flexible maplike representations from information acquired during navigation, whereas others store much less accurate information. Our research uses a virtual-reality paradigm in which two routes are learned and must be related to each other. It defines three groups: integrators, nonintegrators, and imprecise navigators. These groups show distinctive patterns of spatial skills and working memory, as well as personality. We contrast our approach with research challenging the cognitive-map hypothesis and offer directions for rapprochement between the two views.
Making sense of place through multiple memory systems
The first part of the paper develops the argument that geographers should learn to decompose human memory into its constituent parts because then and then alone will we become attuned to the full range of ways in which we incorporate places into our beings. The second part of the paper articulates Stephen Hill's comments on episodic memory with my recent work on wisdom.
“Mental maps”: Between memorial transcription and symbolic projection
Frontiers, 2023
“The mental map” is a concept that has been used and defined in numerous ways. The cognitive map, and the concept map–also known as the “heuristic” or “mind” map–are the two distinct contextual meanings covered by the term mental map in the present article. In the mental map domain, the first major field of study is geography, spatial cognition, and neurophysiology and it aims to understand how the route taken by a subject (or a set of subjects) in space leads to memorization and internal representation(s). In general, the externalization of these representations takes the form of drawings, positioning in a graph, or oral/textual narratives, but it is primarily reflected as a behavior in space that can be recorded as tracking items. A second field of study, one which is geared more toward exploratory and combinatorial uses, is the concept (also heuristic or mind) map which consists in organizing notions, concepts, and information in the form of tree graphs or graphs that can be used to produce diagrams and flowcharts. The aim is projective, for clarification and discovery purposes or for data organization and visualization. To date, very few studies in the literature have examined the similar, overlapping and oppositional features in what is broadly referred to as “representation(s) of space” and “space(s) of representation.” How can we better apprehend the complex notion of “mental map?” The question of memorial transcription? Of “symbolic projection?” Can we identify meeting points between these two polarities and, if possible, a continuum? Through the notion of cognitive graph, recent advances in the understanding of brain mechanisms enable us to approach the distinctions between cognitive map and conceptual map as an articulated and continuous whole. KEYWORDS mental map, mind map, cognitive map, graphic transcription, cognitive graph
Maps in the Head and Maps in the Hand
Abstract Using the perspective of situated cognition we studied how people interact with a physical map to help them navigate through an unfamiliar environment. The study used a mixture of cognitive ethnography and traditional experimental methods. We found that the difference between high and low performing navigators showed up in the speed they completed their task and also in the way they use maps. High performers plan routes using a survey method whereas low performers use a route strategy.
Shared Spatial Understandings - The maps in our heads.
Most if not all ideas have a spatial component. To merely think implies being a mapmaker, at least cognitively and/or metaphysically, and this is true without the need to actually produce any physical representation of a spatial understanding. In other words, we constantly make maps in our head, regardless of whether we write them down anywhere. This article aims at improving the value of our maps, even those in our brain, making them meaningful in the context of military operations. To do so, I suggest a study of our spatial understanding " in action, " one which is post-structuralist, socially constructed, and focuses on its epistemology: the theory of knowledge. All that, in simpler terms, 3-4 pages.
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2012
It’s often hypothesized that the structure of mental representation is map-like rather than language-like. The possibility arises as a counterexample to the argument from the best explanation of productivity and systematicity to the language of thought hypothesis—the hypothesis that mental structure is compositional and recursive. In this paper, I argue that the analogy with maps does not undermine the argument, because maps and language have the same kind of compositional and recursive structure.