Maps in the Head?

Abstract

The psychologist Edward Tolman proposed that rats navigate using cognitive maps. Cognitive maps figure pivotally in navigation across a range of species. A cognitive map in the loose sense is a mental representation that represents geometric aspects of the environment. To defend the existence of cognitive maps, scientists usually cite evidence that animals take novel detours and shortcuts. Thus, any satisfying theory of geometrically structured cognitive maps must articulate a notion of "geometric structure" much more abstract than literal spatial structure in the brain. An analogous estimation problem arises in robotics, where it is called the simultaneous localization and mapping problem. A vast interdisciplinary literature spanning many decades provides great insight into the nature of cognitive maps, their neurophysiological underpinnings, and the psychological processes in which they participate. Folk psychology routinely identifies mental states through their veridicality-conditions. The explanatory success of perceptual psychology provides reason to attribute veridicality-conditions to perceptual states.