ABSTRACT
The “cognitive map” is a metaphor suggested by Tolman about 40 years ago (in 1948) to capture both the flexibility of behavior of animals in their spatial environments and their success in attaining the rewards that they provide. Actually, Tolman specified few details for this concept; instead, he developed a set of metaphors:
The stimuli, which are allowed in, are not connected by just simple one-to-one switches to the outgoing responses. Rather, the incoming impulses are usually worked over and elaborated in the central control room into a tentative, cognitive-like map of the environment. And it is this tentative map, indicating routes and paths and environmental relationships, which finally determines what responses, if any, the animal will release.
