For example, a visualization becomes a helpful tool for describing where a new feature is accessible or when a new team member is onboarded to a new complex system. Visualizations (of any kind) aid in cognitive processing they can help us refine our thinking, breakdown ideas, and capture thoughts. They are flexible and can accommodate a wide set of concepts or situations that need to be represented. Thus, they are often abstract and have no consistent hierarchy. Cognitive maps do not have to adhere to a specific format.
Cognitive maps are the most general type of mental-model visualization. Cognitive mapping is used in a broad range of disciplines for a variety of purposes. Though the above example is digital (and thus high-fidelity), cognitive maps are often low-fidelity and created with paper, pen, and sticky notes. Cognitive maps have since been used in a range of fields Colin Eden, an operations researcher, used the term in a broader sense to refer to a mental model representation of any type of process or concept (whether spatial or not).Ĭognitive mapping is free-form and can include numerous visualization methods, including bulleted lists, flowcharts, concept diagramming, or affinity mapping. In psychology, it has a strong spatial connotation - cognitive maps usually refer to the representation of a space (e.g., a maze) in the brain. The idea of cognitive map originates from the work of the psychologist Edward Tolman, who is famous for his studies of how rats learned to navigate mazes. All mapping techniques described in this article are instances of cognitive maps.ĭefinition: A cognitive map is any visual representation of a person’s (or a group’s) mental model for a given process or concept.Ĭognitive maps have no visual rules that they need to obey: there is no restriction on how the concepts and the relationships between them are visually represented. Cognitive MapsĬognitive maps are the umbrella term for all visual representations of mental models. This article is a comparison of these three popular types of diagramming and their uses in UX. They are three different ways of visualizing a mental model - whether it belongs to the designer, the researcher, or the user.
They help us lay out complex ideas, processes, and recognize patterns and relationships.Ĭognitive maps, mind maps, and concept maps look and feel similar this similarity causes confusion. Cognitive mapping, mind mapping, and concept mapping are three powerful visual-mapping strategies for organizing, communicating, and retaining knowledge.