Images and Mental Maps Author(s): Yi-Fu Tuan Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol.

65, No. 2 (Jun., 1975), pp. 205-213 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of American Geographers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2562082 . Accessed: 17/03/2014 12:01
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IMAGES AND MENTAL MAPS

YI-FU TUAN in the literature of ABSTRACT. "Image" and "mentalmap" appear frequently psychologsense. As or metaphorical often in an abstract perception, environmental ical phenomenamentalimages do not play any essentialrole in spatial behavior, thinking. To accountforspatial abilitywe need to postulate"schenor in abstract mata," ratherthan images and mentalmaps. The mentalmap, a special kind of device; it allows menforexample,it is a mnemonic image,does have itsfunctions: it is, tal practicewhichpromotesassurancein subsequentphysicalperformance; world,complex and like the real map, a way to organizedata; it is an imaginary habitualrounds.To generate images people out of their attractive enoughto tempt behavior in space In an inattentive seems necessary. state,skillful focal attention or schemata.KEY WORDS: is stillpossibleundertheguidanceof somaticintelligence Mental maps, Percept,Schemata, Memory, Imagery, Imagination-image, Attention, Spatial behavior. shown increasinginterestin mental phenomena.' Perhaps no branch of human geogof whatmight be raphyis now whollyinnocent called a psychologicalperspective.With the comes a new vocabulary.In geonew interest ofplanning, as in theliterature graphical writing and urban sociology,words such architecture, as perception, image, cognitivestructure, perceptual space, schema,and mentalmaps occur What do thesewords withmounting frequency. mean? They are not neologisms.They look familiar,and perhaps for this reason writers or psywho are not professional philosophers
Accepted forpublication 6 January 1975.

IN

earnesteftend to use themwithout the last fifteen years geographers have chologists

the words' meaningand imporfortto clarify tance. Image, for example, is an artificial likeness or picture of an object; it is also a perceptsustainedby currentsensoryinput,a and furthermore in thememory, mentalpicture and init could also mean a people's schematic direct knowledgeof place, as in the expression "theEuropean'simageoftheNew World." Mental map may be the streetplan a person or it to a friend, recalls as he gives directions reprecartographic could be the geographer's toward places.2 sentationof people's attitudes

2 It is not mypurpose literato review theextensive in order to show perception ture on environmental how key mentaltermslike image and mentalmap and are used. Such a reviewwould be a worthwhile Dr. Tuan is Professor of Geography at the University ambitious By and large in its own right. undertaking of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN 55455. use thetermimagein thesame historical geographers thatis, as a people'sconceptof a sense as historians, 1 In theearlydaysof psychology themindoccupied place or regionwhichtheyhave not directly experithecenter of thestageand mental imagery was one of enced and whichcan be expressed in words,pictures, themostimportant concepts forunderstanding human or maps. Thus J. M. Powell, a geographer, spoke of behavior.With the growthof behaviorism in the "the nineteenth century proteanimagesof Australia," 1920s,mental imagery beganto fade as a serioussub- and Howard MumfordJones, a literaryhistorian, ject for investigation in the English-speaking world. spoke of the "image" and "anti-image" of the New Behaviorists recognizedonly behavior: mentalphe- World. Urban geographers, followingKevin Lynch nomena were simplyidentified withbehavior.Since (architect and planner), use image in the narrower the 1960s imagery once more became a serioussub- senseof how peoplerestructure in wordsand sketches ject of studyfor scientific psychologists. Geographers the visual images of places that they have directly are in an ambivalent position between thesetwo psy- experience. talk of image as a special Psychologists chologicaldevelopments. Thoughgeographers profess kind of event that occurs briefly in an individual's an interest in the mind theirfocus of studyremains mind. observablebehavior.The mind appears as a sort of map was introduced The idea of mental or cognitive "ghostin themachine"thatmakesit easierto under- by the psychologist E. C. Tolman to accountfor the standcertain kindsof humanaction. also men,respondnot factthatrats,and presumably ANNALS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN GEOGRAPHERS i 1975 by the Associationof AmericanGeographers. Printedin U.S.A. Vol. 65, No. 2, June 1975

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Wordslikeimageand mental map are loosely and variously defined. Have theybecome poetic metaphors keptin use out of habit,or do they in factcaptureimportant facetsof human geographicalbehavior?The purpose of thispaper is to showthatmentaleventsare elusivebutnot ineffable, that theyjustify a ratherspecial vocabulary,and thattheirstudycontributes fundamentally to the understanding of human acin space. The approach is descriptive: tivities mentalphenomenaare made more "tangible" by relating themto real lifesituations.
SCHEMATA

Interest in the mind restslargelyon the beliefthathumanactions,fromfinding one's way aroundtownto discovering theNew World,are guidedby mentalimagesand maps. Is thistrue, and if true,what is the specific natureof such imagery? It is assumedthatcomplicated movements are guided by rational decisions and plans carried in the head. An assumptionof this kind can easily lead to wrong inferences concerningthe nature of the mental world. Elaborate actions taken by animals,including humanbeings,do not necessarily require"pic- whereas"conservatives" believe that the distinctions, capacity, are important tures" and "maps" in the head. Take the ex- based on man'shighsymbolic
onlyto specific and successive stimuli in the environment,but to entireenvironmental fields.An animal appearscapable of elaborating a "cognitive-like map" of thefieldand acting in it accordingly. Undertheinfluence of PeterGould and Thomas Saarinen,among others, geographers tendto see mental mapsprimarily as 1) cartographic representations of how people differ in theirevaluationof places, and 2) freehand maps that people can draw-outlines of city streets and continents. J. M. Powell, "Medical Promotionand the Consumptive Immigrant to Australia,"Geographical Review, Vol. 63 (1973), p. 449; Howard Mumford Jones,"The Image of the New World" and "The The VikingPress,1964), pp. 1-70; KevinLynch,The Image of theCity(Cambridge:MIT Press,1960); E. C. Tolman, "CognitiveMaps in Rats and Men," PeterGould and RodneyWhite,Mental Maps (Harmondsworth: Pelican Books, 1974); Thomas F. Saarinen, "The Use of ProjectiveTechniques in Geographical Research," in William H. Ittelson,ed., Press,1973), pp. 29-52. For the many,though by no meansall, senses-of theterms imagesand mental map, see RogerM. Downs and David Stea, eds.,Image and Environment (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1973). 3 In current academic thinking, "liberals"seek to deny basic distinctions betweenanimals and people,
Environment and Cognition (New York: Academic Psychological Review, Vol. 55 (1948), pp. 189-208; Anti-Image," in 0 Strange New World (New York:

ample of small-brained animalswhichare capable of long-distance The American migration. golden plover swings from Arctic breeding grounds to the southeasterncoast of South Americaand back. Its spatialability is mostimpressive, yetit is unrealistic to suppose thatthe bird navigates its intercontinental course through consultation withintricate celestialand terrestrial charts in itshead. Birdsmaynoteven have images as humansknow them,much less mentalmaps. Their ability to traverse vast distancesunderdifferent conditions oflight and sky requiresdetailedexplanation, whichwe do not yet possess. It seems unlikely,however,that the visual image,something like a picture, will be a componentof any sophisticated explanation.4What needs to be understood is the animal's schemata (cognitivestructures or coding systems)thatenable it to respondappropriately to shifting patternsof environmental stimuli. The usefulness of the terms"schema" or "cognitivestructure" lies in thattheydo not suggest "picture," whether materialor mental.

and shouldnot be overlooked. Is animalterritoriality essentially the same as humanterritoriality? Are animal systems of communication essentially the same as humanlanguage? Ethologists and behaviorists look hard for similarities, whereashumanists and linguists of the Chomsky school are primarily concerned with thedifferences. This debateis probably perennial, and it shouldcertainly be encouraged. 4 SusanneK. Langercriticizes the widespread tendof animal ency for anthropomorphic interpretation migration and spatialbehavior in Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling (Baltimore:The Johns HopkinsUniversity Press, 1972), Vol. II, pp. 45-101. She notes of animal pathfinding as (p. 90): "All explanations navigation by celestialcues imputeexcessively high mentaloperations to birds, bats,cetaceans ... and fish. Yet the amazing acts are patently observable,and muchhesitation, are carried without typically through of sigtrial and error,or apparentmisinterpretation nals. Clearlythereis something more than a use of in the original involved zodiac signsand sun readings orientation of migrating birds.Perhapsour searchfor world the basic navigation compassin theirexternal is a vain effort, because neither birdsnor beasts steer theiressential coursesby any compasslike means." It is at leastclearthatfamiliar landmarks playverylittle role in how pigeonsfindtheirway home,in striking contrastto human beings who depend on familiar and whosemaps are systems landmarks of landmarks. When frosted contactlensesare put over the eyes of pigeons,theycan stillfindtheirway home. See William T. Keeton, "The Mystery of Pigeon Homing," ScientificAmerican, Vol. 231 (1974), p. 105.

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Adults,in the course of a day, make many Human beings have large,brains. Our acts are rational, by whichwe mean thattheyfollow highlycomplex yet undeliberated movements. examplescome from mental or material plans. Intelligentaction Perhapsthemostdramatic seems to require specificawareness,yet it is motoring. and comMany long-distance drivers well known that not only complicatedmove- mutershave knownthe experienceof "blankments can be carried out without plan or ing out" while theyare on a monotonousand imagebut thattheintervention of imagery may familiarstretch of the road: theirbodies take responding to curvesand even well hinder performance. A beginningtypist overthedriving, needs a plan of the keys,an experienced typist to traffic signals correctly, while their minds doesn't. His fingersfly over the keyboard. are empty or occupiedwithother things. Griffith While typing he is totallyunawareof the posi- Williamshas collected cases of what he calls tion of the keys. Aftertyping he may be hard "highway hypnosis." Hypnosiscan be variously or through where induced,as, for example,by the gentlecurves putto expressverbally writing the alphabetsare located on the keyboard.He of the highway, the muffled purrof a smoothly engine,the hum of the tires,the glare has to make a special mentaleffort to tell or running depictsomething thathis fingers can do effort- from the hood duringdaytimeand fromthe lessly. road, lit up by headlights, at night.One driver thatinterest describeshis experienceas follows:6 Considerthekindsof movement geographers, those thatinvolve changes of loI discovered this fact (amnesia) while drivingat cation at different scales. Begin withthe young night from Portland,Oregon to San Francisco, childwho has learnedto walk. He is soon able California. The lights of a townapproachedand I realizedthatI had beenin an almost sleepcondition to totterabout the room or in the backyard, for about 25 miles.Inasmuchas I knewthe road I not randomly, but froma starting point to a had traveled was notstraight, it was apparent thatI destination and then back. Accordingto Jean had negotiated etc. the road, makingall the turns, Piaget, a mathematicianmight look at the I did not rememberthe stretchof road at all . . . I moves objectively,that is, from an external purposely tried it severaltimesafter thatand found thatI could drivemilesand mileswithout memory viewpoint, and characterize the motorseriesas In each case, the moment a group of displacements or as reversibility: of it, and while resting. any drivingemergency appeared,I became fully the youngchild can be said to have learnedto awake. coordinatehis displacement in a whole system It is a commontendency to inferthe preswhichallows him to return to the pointof deence of deliberate thought and of articulated parture. Does thismean thatthe child's touris mental images when we see complex behavior. guidedby an image or a plan thathe can repbirds must somehow resentfor himself? Piaget's answer is "not at One feels that migrating all." Even children fourand fiveyearsold, who carrycelestialchartsin theirheads whichthey withthe skill of an astronomer, and can go fromhome to school and return alone, interpret territorial animals have mental maps of their theirpath of travel; appear unable to represent theyare not consciousof havingand following a plan. Insofaras theyare able to represent the evocationwhichis not only impossible to verify but superfluous, since thereis, in thiscase, pathto school it is a kindof motorrepresenta- is, moreover, of thattotal field: the rat does not have tion.A five-year-old child mightsay: "I leave perception to imaginethe objectsor eventswhichare not perthe house, I go like that (gesture), then like ceptible at thetime.All it has to do is to combineits that (gesture), thenI make a turning like that, motions and perceptions in assessing the indicesmore closelyeach time.It does not have to forma total thenI reach school."5
5Jean Piaget,The Child and Reality (New York: VikingCompass Edition,1974), pp. 18-19. In book afterbook Piaget arguesthatyoungchildren have a high degree of what he calls "sensorimotor intelligence,"but deniesthattheyare able to conceptualize theiracts. He also denies "mentalimages"and "ideationalbehavior" to animals."It is veryhard to conceiveof any representation becausethe animalhas no semioticinstruments (language or the like), and to call up 'mental images' presupposes a capacityfor pictureas a draftsman or cartographer does. There is, of course,an overallsystem, but thisis within the action schemata and not in representation." Jean Piaget,Biologyand Knowledge(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,1971), pp. 263-64. 6 Griffith Williams,"HighwayHypnosis: An Hypothesis,"The International Journalof Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 11 (1963), p. 147. For a novelist'sdescription of highwaycompetencedespite absentmindedness, see Christopher Isherwood, A SingleMan (New York: Simonand Schuster, 1964), pp. 35-36.

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we see area comparableto themaps thata geographer image,on the otherhand, is something stimulido not appear draws. Such beliefs are unproven.They are when the environmental it. I mayrecallmycomfortable not likelyto be true. Reflectionon our own to justify bed at of the home when I am actuallyat a crowdedparty. experience showsthatdeliberate thought kindwe use whenwe play chessor plan a family When perceptand image are examinedclosely, theycan be shownto differ in degree tripis seldom employedin routinized circula- however, than in kind. A percept,afterall, is not tions. Such movements are not controlledby rather in a "snapshot"registering mechanically environany image or plan that can be represented words, diagrams, or gestures; they manifest mentalinformation; the eye is highlyselective rathersomatic intelligence.7 The body is cap- of the stimuli to whichit will respond.A memon theother able of responding to changesin environmental ory-image, hand,maybe prompted stimuliand adapting to them successfully in by a current stimulus: cold air from thekitchen accordancewithits own schemata.The nature ice box can call forth an image of snowbound of the schemata is little known, except that Minneapolis.8Abilityto see is obviouslyimto humanunderstanding, but whatcogtheyare partlyinnate and partlythe resultof portant do visual images serve? cumulative experience. Unlike the image,sche- nitivefunctions mata and cognitive When people think, structures cannotbe directly images may or may not arisein themind.Images do appear involuntarexperienced:theycan onlybe inferred. People can The schemataof the lower animals appear ily in dreamingand daydreaming. to be largelyinnate. Their impressivemotor also deliberately summonscenesfromthepast. skillsare out of line withtheirmodestcapacity Sometimessuch memory-images are so vivid inter- thattheyare like pictures to learn,thatis, benefit stepby stepfrom projectedon a screen actionswiththe environment. Withhumanbe- to which one can turnto examinethe details. ings experience and learning clearly play a These are known as eideticimages. They dewithage and major role in building up theschemata.If peo- cline in sharpnessand frequency ple can typewithgreatspeed and drive a car verbaleducation.They appear to help children the "concrete" sensoryaspects of the over windingroads for many miles without to affix in their minds; pseudo-sensory thinking, it is nonethelessobvious that these environment timeto appraisetheirsurmotor skills have to be acquired first step by imagesgive children worldin theirown way.9Withadults step.The aspiring typist mustmake a conscious rounding in thinking effort to memorizethe plan of the keyboard, the role of imagery and learning is and thenovicedriver has to be taught by a ver- less clear. Some people claim dependencyon think, others on words.Scienbalizing,gesticulating teacher,or learn himself imageswhenthey through the carefulstudyof a manual contain- tists may be visualizersor verbalizers;some ing diagramsand plans. Even the amoeba can make use of both imagesand wordswhenthey learn. Human beingsunderhypnosiscan initi- cogitate,and a few claim to use neither.One ate minor adaptive acts. Sustained innovative behavior,however, requiresthe cooperationof 8 "The commonsensedistinction between mental the deliberating mind. How important, then, imageand percept is important and mustbe preserved. we shouldnot lose sight of thefactthat What Nevertheless, are imagesand mentalmaps to thinking? is the function of imagery in adaptive and in- the image thatis usuallycalled a perceptis as much a construct of the nervoussystemas is a memory novativespatial behavior? image . . . All images are the end product of a process
IMAGERY

in A perceptis sustained by the information the environment: we see whatis beforeus. An

7 "Somaticintelligence," and "animal intelligence," mis"sensorimotor intelligence" are not metaphorical whichmeansa capacity uses of thewordintelligence, for logical thought. H. H. Price argues that logical thinknotions suchas not,or, and ifexistin preverbal thoughts; ingand in bodily movements thatare enacted H. H. Price, Thinkingand Experience (London: Hutchinson University Library, 1969), pp. 123-43.

of construction, and thatthe usual dichotomy of percept vs. mentalimage should be replacedby a continuum on whichtheseopposednotions are ideal cases if everattained rarely in reality." RobertR. Holt, "On the Nature and Generality of Mental Imagery,"in PeterW. Sheehan,ed., The Functionand Nature of Imagery(New York: AcademicPress, 1972), p. 12. 9 GordonAllport,"EideticImagery," British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 15 (1924), pp. 99-110; Leonard W. Doob, "The UbiquitousAppearanceof Images," in Sheehan,op. cit., footnote 8, pp. 319-20; and Mardi J. Horowitz,"Visual Imageryand Cognitive Organization," AmericanJournalof Psychiatry, Vol. 123 (1967), p. 945.

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for the occasions that shows that anthropologists your presentdifficulty, studyof scientists and psychologists tend to be verbalizers, caused particular scenes in the continuous to be storedin your tend to be streamof past experience whereas biologists and physicists visualizers.'0Geographerswere not included mind may not be relevantto your presentdiin the study.Withtheirlikingfor picturesand lemma. When you are lost you need a real map and the help of streetnames. Recalling maps, theyare perhapsgood visualizers. withage and within- odd images of shop windows,streetcorners, The declineof imagery creasing verbal prowess suggeststhat images and statues are no help. Would they help if somewhatlike illus- they can be spatially organized into mental are a luxuryin thinking, trations in a book or slides in a lecture.Purely maps? logical processes are not imageable, although MENTAL MAPS mayhelp theability to envisagecomplexfigures A mental map is a special type of image Matheone to sustaina highlevel of thought. related to sensory maticians, forexample,doodle. The weirdlines which is even less directly models experience.An image which is a mentalmap and cones theydraw may be suggestive thana "picture" is obviously a construct. or symbolsof N-dimensionalspace, but they rather cannotbe its image. Napoleon has a low opin- In fact,no perceptor image is a mere photoA percept is not onlytheregisHe is re- graphof reality. role of imagery. ion of theintellectual of current environmental stimuli but also portedto have said thatthosewho forma pic- tering effort producedunderthe needs are unfit to command.F. C. an imaginative tureof everything said: "A com- of the moment.To see is to create. An image thisremark, Bartlett, interpreting it originates as a percept, manderwho approachesa battlewitha picture is doublya construct: further transformation under went and then suffers beforehim of how such and such a fight on such and such an occasion, will find,two the pressureof the occasion that promptsits minutes after theforceshave joined,thatsome- recall. A mentalmap may be the image of a of a real map thinghas gone awry. Then his pictureis de- real map, thatis, an abstraction of reality.Maps He has nothing in reserveexcept an- whichis itselfan abstraction stroyed. can of course be createdin the mind without picture."" otherindividual images If imagery or marginal recourseto pen and paper. The discrete has onlya supportive kinds of thinking, of a city-for example,scenesof shops,monurole in the more demanding corners-can be restructured ef- ments,and street whatis itsfunction cognitive in life'sroutine into a plan. What is the use of such forts?A geographer, for example, mightask: mentally do mental or memoryimages help people to an image-plan?If we are in a familiarworld findtheirway about town?The answerwould and are merelygoing home in a routineway, seem to be a clear-cutyes until we pause to no mentalmap (in thesense of an image-plan) the scene examinewhat mentalimages are. An image is is required:our clevermovesthrough perceptual a percept of the past. Suppose you are in a need onlytheguidanceof unfocused cityyou have visitedbefore,but in whichyou cues and imagelessschemata.If, on the other feel lost. Clearlyit servesno purpose to close hand,we are lost mentalmaps mayhelp to the aid. extent that they provide somethingto think youreyes and summonimages as memory makeit easierto focusand reorganize If what you now see, the percept,providesin- with;they Theycannot, however, be read off thenthepast per- our thoughts. adequate clues to orientation, cept (image) can only be even less adequate, in the way thata real map can. If theyare so fortheperceptalreadycontainsmemory traces clear that we can count the streetson them, of the past in additionto current information thenwe are not lost and have no cause to apMoreover, the images peal to memoryimages: percepts,themselves fromthe environment. Mental thatcan be recalledmay bear littlerelationto partial productsof memory,suffice.'2
"A Study of Imageryin Research Scientists," Journalof Personality, Vol. 19 (1951), pp. 459-70. 11F. C. Bartlett, A Studyin ExperiRemembering: mental and Social Psychology(Cambridge at the University Press, 1932), p. 220.
10 Anne Rose,
12 Countingis not normally possible in memory images, evenwhentheyseemveryvivid.Most sensory perceptions are in factrather sketchy even whenthey seem sharp and full of countabledetail. "When I look at thecorrugated ironroofI am awarethatI am seeing'stripes', but I am certainly not aware of the numberof these.To ascertaintheirnumberI must

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images that 3) Mental maps are a mnemonicdevice. If maps, then,are not representable people carryin theirheads as they go about we wish to memorize events, people, and nor are theyof real use whenwe things, business, it helps to know theirlocationsor even their in to assign themto arbitrary locations. Suppose are lost. Mental maps have otherfunctions geographical knowledge and behavior. Here we want to retainin our memorythe people who attended a party. One technique is to are fiveexamples. the individualguestswiththeirplaces 1) Mental maps make it possible to give identify There are two ways of around the dining-room table. At a later date to a stranger. directions being helpful: one is to go withhim, and the when the need to rememberthe partygoers otheris to tell him how to get there.We can arises, it is only necessaryto reproduce the and gesticula- mentalmap of theirsitting positions.This spaspeech,sketches, tellhimthrough an tial mnemonic device,demonstrable in psychowe can tellwe mustsummon tion;butbefore has been knownsince Roimage of the route our enquirerhas to take. logical experiments, We pause and thensay,"Ah, yes.You go to the man times.Oratorsfoundit usefulbecause they and you will see a oftenhad to make long, fact-ladenspeeches. turnright thirdtraffic light, churchat the end of the road; turnleftat the In De OratoreCicero noted "that personsdetwo blocks and you will see siringto trainthis faculty(of memory) must go another church, the restauranton your right."None of the select places and formmental images of the and store those may be visiblefromwhere thingstheywish to remember features mentioned stand.We call up a mental images in the places, so that the order of the we and the enquirer theorderof thethings, and map which is then passed on to the enquirer. places will preserve will denote the things succeeds and the the images of the things Unless the communication enquirerhas a similar map in mind he will themselves,and we shall employ the places as a wax writing-tablet not know the way and will have to ask for di- and imagesrespectively written in it."'14 light.Mental maps and the letters rectionsagain at the traffic spatial information 4) Mentalmaps,like real maps, are a means prepareus to communicate to structure and store knowledge.Justas not effectively. 2) Mentalmaps makeit possibleto rehearse everyoneis enamoredof the real map and of it is best suitedto conspatial behaviorin the mind so that when we thekindsof information has his mentalwares arare actuallyon the road we can act witha de- tain,so not everyone gree of assurancethatwe would not otherwise ranged in mental maps. Presumablygeogratendency to do so; yet have. Such a mental exerciseis not necessary phershave the greatest of a mentalmap verbaltranscription when we move in a routinefashionin thor- thefullest It cannot be done is that of an English novelist,Angus Wilson. oughly familiarterritory. is worth quoting at length whenwe do notknowtheway,forthenwe need The transcription to studya real map. Only when we thinkwe because it says in some detail what imaging know the way but are not absolutelysure, do and images are like, how they develop, and theyoccur.Such accounts we consultour mentalmap forthe purpose of underwhatcondition despite makingmentaltrialruns.Modern man is foot- are veryrarein social scienceliterature loose; he oftenhas to go to places that are the mountinginterestin images and mental known.These may be the most com- maps.'5 slightly bemon occasions when mentalmaps emerge, 'sees' and 'feels' himselfgoing and in imagination cause they serve a definitefunction.They through he roll over and landing therunup, take off, allow mental practice, that is, the symbolic is engagedin mentalpractice. . . Improved performIn driving, as ance can resultfromthis formof practiceand that rehearsalof a physicalactivity. maywell play imaging abilities in athletics, mentalpracticecan improvephysi- visualand kinaesthetic in the amountof gain obtainedby role a significant cal performance.'3 Mental Alan Richardson, individual." any particular
the 'stripes' move my eyes along the roof,inspecting what I can never one by one. And this is precisely roof."Brian of corrugated do withmymemory-image Smith,Memory (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1966), p. 161. says: Alan Richardson 13With regardto athletics, forhis turnto jump "Whena highjumperis waiting Imagery(London: Routledge& Kegan Paul, 1969), p. 56. 14 Frances A. Yates, The Artof Memory(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 22; and G. H. Bower, "Analysis of a Mnemonic Device," Vol. 58 (1970), pp. 496-510. Scientist, American 15 AngusWilson, The WildGarden(Berkeley:UniPress,1963), pp. 119-20. of California versity

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of a distantand unseen goal. In the nineteenth century many Europeans lefttheirhomes for remoteparts of the world of which theyhad no directexperience. They did not go blindly: the move was a calculated risk.They had immy mind, if unchecked . . . , is to place this build- ages of their new homesbased on hearsay,leting in relationto otherfamous Istanbulmosques tersfromrelatives, and immigration literature. on thatI have seen,and thesein turnI see visually imageswere a cause of fromthe whole map of Istanbul Indeed these attractive whatI remember desireto move. in myBlue Guide.If I am tiredand idle thepicture their to expand. Istanbul will will begin automatically Scottishfarmers, while they toiled on the Turkish edgesof the moors,could nevertheless besidetheother appearon a map of Turkey envision I have visited, willin their turn acquire towns which maps sunny California. Such elaborated mental visual details.This map will also be markedwith of de- of unseenplaces are conceivableonlyin human pictures the townsI failedto see, in feebler tails that I have only read of. . . . On the edges of beings. They depend on the abilityto create my consciousness, waiting to slide into vision . . . is imagesrather thanon theability to recallthem. like those Memory-image can be distinguishedfrom something a wholeworldmap, appearing demographiccharts in which densely populated The latter is morearbitrary, areas are heavilystuddedwithblack dots,Antarc- imagination-image. lackingfirmness and context. A memoryhas black often tica largelya blank. My map, however, dotsof real experience and grey dotsof imagination imagemight showa friend riding a bicycledown varying shades to mark literary a narrowpath. As one continuesto entertain and, in between, historic events, the home of townsof associations, and inpeople whomI have metwhentheyweretravelling the image its frameexpands naturally to include the broader contextof abroad, and so on. Thus on my mentalmap the voluntarily London area is a black splodge,Provencerichly trees along the path and of fieldsbeyond the black, Antarctica(the scene of many of my ice trees.Withimagination-image the components Tehranlightly markedby my are puttogether fears) a heavygrey, that deliberately and fancifully, hours, view of the airportin the early morning for example,the friendmay be overshadedbecause it is the residenceof an old is, arbitrarily; by the word Mussadigand his perceived to ride an elephant ratherthan a friend, cross-shaded pyjamaed form . . . Above this world map with its bicycle.The friend and so is a memory-image overlaysor shadingsand collectionsof dramatis is the elephant,but the two have never been personae,time spiralsupwardsso that each place the imageis a creativeconstructoo has its historical chart eitherdatingpersonal seen together: and because of the or bringing past. tion,moreor less arbitrary, into mindits historic experiences arbitrariness it does not expand naturally into worlds. They a broadercontext.'6An imaginary mapsareimaginary 5) Mental world is an tempt peopleoutof elaborated imagination-image. A Scottish attractive goalsthat depict mapthat is also farmer constructsCalifornia, his imaginary rounds. A mental their habitual an imaginary forhistoriansworld, out of bits of his experience in the worldhas interest and historical becauseit helpsto warmer geographers whathe has partsof Scotlandand from mi- read. The process of construction Goal-directed peoplemigrate. explain why is not well is characteristically human. True,ani- understood.It is the fundamental gration problemin in perception.Even the perceptis not simplya mal movements in space can be described ofhome, thehuman terms goals.Ani- registration journey, constimuli. of current Imaginative are more appropriately mal goals, however, struction affects all aspects of human awareby biocalled "stations," pauses necessitated and memory playsa role in all imaginative thatare essentiallyness, logicalneeds,alongroutes If constructions. it is puzzlingthat a Scottish may roundtrips.Human cyclicalmovement in his croft can envisionsunnyCaliforfarmer also be of thiskind.We leave homeeveryday of is no nia, it less puzzling thatthe geography to go to theoffice and on theway homewe alive can be and distant brought places taught to pickup theevening stopby thenewsstand or even who have neverbeen there, can becomeso routine that to students paper.Thesetrips thestreet direcwe no longer as thatone personcan understand and newsstand think of office in a round be- tionsgivenby another.The factthatwe never are stations trip that goals: they only in desimplysee whatis beforeus differs ginsand endsat home.

but theorderand I failedto learnmymathematics, have achievedfromthemwere pattern thatI might of geography subjects builtdeep intomy preferred at some momenta If I remember and history. particularobject that I have seen, say the Blue of Mosque in Istanbul,then the naturaltendency

human occurs when migration Quintessential abandon one homein favor peopledeliberately

16

Smith, op. cit.,footnote 12,p. 142.

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gree fromthe fact thatwe can see "in the attentive Thisis notall: another processes. and mind's eye"what we havenever actually seen. deeper levelofcognition is involved. When we look at the collegelibrary, it is not just any IMAGERY, SCHEMATA, AND ATTENTION but one of a particular building kindthathas significance for us; itis also recogImagery and schemata have been described somespecial and temporal setting. These separately. Theirdifferent functions in cogni- nizedin itsspatial of reference are thesubconscious tionandbehavior are suggested by therelative frames scheimportance oftherolethat attention plays.To mata thatguideperception and imagination. see in themind's eyeplaceswe havenotvisited Theyarethethird levelofcognition that underrequires such concentrated attention thatthe girds attentive andpreattentive processes. Scheeffort immobilizes us. Distant journeys begin in mata,especially thoseof space and time, are thearmchair where EdensandUtopias arecon- in partgenetically determined; in partthey are cocted. By contrast, consider thedegree ofim- thenonspecific butorganized of representation in rou- pastexperience.19 aginative effort and attention required tinetravel. We drive toward thecity and as we Whathappens when attention wanes, as, for do so we notice theprominent landmarks, the example, when we are tired? The power to enchurch spireto theright, thewarmemorial to an visage world imaginary is lost. Objects theleft, and thebridge ahead thathas to be us lose their vividness andparticularity. crossed. Thesewe notice butbetween them are around The is mind susceptible to invasion bymemorythe numerous features thatescape our attenimages. When tired and inattentive we can still in forgranted. tion;they are taken Orientation drive a car or walk around in familiar obstacles a newenvironment is among themoredifficult ability we retain. has space.It is theone cognitive cognitive tasks, yetonce theenvironment accountof become familiar a ha- Colin Wilsongivesa picturesque and we haveestablished might affect attention andyetleave bitualrouteit is possibleto movein it with howfatigue onlyminimal focalattention, and without the our motor moreor less intact.20 activity conscious recourse toimagery. the morning you might have noticedthatone of Image,whether of the imaginative or the In the girlshad nice legs and that the otherhad reis perhaps of memory kind, alwaystheresult centlydyed her hair. Now theyare merely"two attention. features suchas a tower girls";the filter Prominent cuts out all unnecessary detail. If not even noticethat you might or a bridge becomethefociof our perceptual you are verytired, fields. We see them now,and they mayreturn theyare girls;you are merelyaware thatthereare two otherpeople in the carriagewithyou. Later, to us lateras memory-images, butmuch cogni- you cannot remember whether theywere men or tiveactivity in dailylifeis preattentive. Prewomen.The mindhas progressed further in the diIt retainsenough sense of attentive are limited to theimmedi- rectionof abstraction. processes atepresent; immediate motion time and place to steeryou back home, but the they affect bodily it imposeson theworldis now of the most andattention focalattention, itself. Unlike pre- "order" arbitrary kind,a fewbare linesof latitude and lonin thestorage gitude. attentive processes do notresult ofinformation that canbe retrieved later as imthe partsout of which 19 Neisser, ages.17 They provide 17,pp. 286-89. op. cit.,footnote focal attention maysynthesize manydifferent 20 Colin Wilson, Origins of the Sexual Impulse scenes.Whenwe say of a place thatit looks (London: ArthurBarkerLtd., 1963), p. 66. Spatial to humansurvival does not seem to theact abilitynecessary is that familiar, what probably happens require a highorderof intelligence. Is thiswhyprofesofvisual one: sionalgeographers is thesameas an earlier synthesis look offended whenlay people exlook familiar even pect them to know where the cornerdrugstore the place can therefore is? an experiment by L. A. Pechit has undergone substantial though physical K. S. Lashleydiscussed in whichratsand humansubjects learnedmazes is an ef- stein The act of visualsynthesis change.18 of identical and in whichthe rats showedto pattern, fort ofconstructive attention that makes use of rather good advantage. Withsimpleenoughhabitsthe and the brain-damthe partialclues and unitsprovided by pre- lower species,the feebleminded,
17 Ulric Neisser, Cognitive Psychology (New York: 1967), p. 93. Appleton-Century-Crofts, 18 Neisser, 17,p. 98. op. cit.,footnote

aged can learnaboutas fastas a normal person;K. S. Lashley,"Learning: I. NervousMechanisms in Learning,"in Carl Murchison, ed., The Foundations of Experimental Psychology (Worcester:Clark University Press,1929), p. 535.

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in recent published years. It is in thenature of a -new field to venture out boldlywithout too in much Social scientists showincreasing interest concern fortheappropriateness ofterms, mental phenomena; thesecan be very elusive. the significance of concepts, and logical reIf spectability. Behaviorists havereasonto overlook them. A timecomes,however, whena must we are to study themental worlddescriptionsnewfield pausein itsflight to reconsider shouldbe fulland precise rather thanencap- thesoundness of its foundation and thekinds in metaphorical sulated shorthand. Termslike of questions it asks.Perceptual has geography in the head, and mental sucha stage.As we pause to examine image,pictures map reached have tended to becomevagueentities thatdo concepts like imagery and schemata we may notcorrespond to psychological reality. Meta- discover thatmental have interest phenomena phors haveheuristic valueifthey arenottaken forus not onlyas academicgeographers but literally. It cannot be assumed that peoplewalk as ordinarily curious human Their beings. study aboutwithpictures in thehead,or thatpeo- suggests answers to questions thatall thinking ple's spatialbehavior is guided by picture-like people ask. How do we recognize places and images andmental mapsthat arelikerealmaps. find ourwayamong them? Areourmovements The studyof people's mentalworldin the guided likepictures in thehead? by something courseof dailyliving is therelationship requires thatwe do not What between perception and imposeon it the specialized categories of the theimaginative thatenablesus to enfaculty academic and artistic professions. Geographersvisage placeswe havenotdirectly experienced? runtheriskof seeing mapsin people'sheads, How is it possible to givestreet directions to areperhaps inclined to put another justas arthistorians person?How can the geography of on picture-images. undueemphasis landsbe taught? If thequestions strange sound itmay be because-liketheblunt is no longera novelty Perception among naive, queries geographers. Muchresearch hasbeendoneand of precocious are deep. children-they

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