A NOTE ON COGNITIVE MAPS - AN OPTIMAL SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE REPRESENTATION

One's cognitive system has certain limitations such as memory capacity and information processing speed. The structure of the physical environment also makes some restrictions on one's cognition. However, one may optimize the use of cognitive resources under the cognitive and physical constraints. This may be observed in human spatial knowledge acquisition. In this note, the structure of a cognitive map is reconsidered from the viewpoint of the optimization of cognitive resource allocation. First, an axiomatic system called a string geometry is introduced to formally represent spatial knowledge. Second, an optimal structure of a cognitive map is mathematically identified under certain conditions in terms of efficient spatial knowledge acquisition. Finally, some important features of a human cognitive map are reconsidered in comparison with this optimal structure. © 1991.