The Map In Your Mind (?)

And did technology make us worse mental mappers?

I was having an interesting conversation with a friend on social media as to how you visualize or mentally map places, sparked by this story about the almost-impossible London cab-driver exam.

She was wondering how people “see” places they know in their mind. It’s an interesting question, because it’s actually hard to describe how I know a place well enough to get around without a map (GPS, nowadays—I like the idea of using a paper map, but it’s like using a typewriter, alluring but ultimately too much work when you have the choice not to do it). I think I see places in my head as they look on the ground: more like 3D spatial renderings than like a top-down map. But somehow it’s hard to say!

Thinking about this made me realize that there are certain routes, even to places I go often, that I have never bothered to completely memorize. They usually involve more than one exit/ramp, or several turns. Either I have more trouble visualizing the route when it has more steps, or I just don’t have the patience for it, so my mental map is mostly straight commercial areas and a few places I can drive to on them easily from my house. Lots of things in between are blank.