cognitive map

a mental understanding of an environment, formed through trial and error as well as observation. The concept is based on the assumption that an individual seeks and collects contextual clues, such as environmental relationships, rather than acting as a passive receptor of information needed to achieve a goal. Human beings and other animals have well-developed cognitive maps that contain spatial information enabling them to orient themselves and find their way in the real world (see spatial cognition); symbolism and meaning are also contained in such maps. See also environmental cognition; landmark; mental map. [introduced by Edward C. Tolman]

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Psychology term of the day

May 1st 2024

protanopia

n. red–green color blindness in which the deficiency is due to the absence of the core photopigment sensitive to red light, resulting in red stimuli appearing very dim and confusion between red and green (see dichromatism). The condition may be unilateral (i.e., color vision may be normal in one eye). See also deuteranopia.