Cognitive maps are the mental representations, images, or models we create based on our perceptions of ourselves and our environment. These exist as neural spatial networks which link past experience with present perceptions, ideas, and emotions.  Our cognitive maps are combinations of all types of sensory input, including visual images, emotions, and beliefs. If the past experiences are negative, they become embedded in our thinking as an unconscious assumption.  Because of this, individuals bias new information to fit earlier experiences.  It can be difficult to transcend our early perceptions and cognitive rules of thumb about how our world works without direct and meaningful experiences that counter the earlier perceptions.  These existing mental maps and assumptions can constrain future perception about our abilities, opportunities, future choices, and relationships with others.

For example, in one study, children from predominantly ethnic neighborhoods were asked to draw maps of their world.  The children viewed their worlds very narrowly, drawing detailed maps of only their block and small surrounding areas.  Beyond these boundaries, there were vague renderings of adjacent neighborhoods, but only if they were of similar ethnicities. The findings indicate a lack of psychological reference within the children’s mental understanding of their world, both in terms of place and culture.  In many studies, culture, history and economic factors are shown to distort distances and locations of neighboring regions.  By allowing children to virtually visit beyond known borders and recreate their neighborhood through narrative, as well as virtually changing their neighborhoods – such as redesigning empty lots into playgrounds, or graffiti to murals – will provide the experiential opportunity necessary to change their brains, expanding their world and possibilities.