Mental Map

Mental maps are internal representations of the world. Also called cognitive maps, the idea originated with psychologist Edward Tolman, who demonstrated in 1948 that rats navigating mazes weren’t just learning a sequence of turns — they were building an internal map of the space. A map they could consult and navigate from flexibly, finding new routes when familiar ones were blocked.
Tolman’s insight migrated from physical space into social and professional space. We build internal representations of those environments too – of situations, relationships, organizations, people. Developed through experience, they determine what we see, how we make sense of it, what we’d do about it. You don’t decide to use maps – they’re always on during waking hours. Sleep plays a role too. Offline replay during sleep appears to play an especially important role in generating more abstract representations of the environment.
Like any map, a mental map reduces complexity to be useful for navigation. There will always be a gap between information in the world and information in your maps. That’s not a flaw, it’s a feature. We can’t use a map drawn at scale. That’s called terrain – the space a map is supposed to represent.
I’ll use mental map when talking about content and structure – what’s in the map, where does it came from, and why that and not something else. I’ll use working model when talking about active processing of that content – the map being run against incoming signals, generating felt experience, producing responses.

Positional Awareness