Classifying, Analysing and Experiencing Maps - Advances in Cartography and GIScience - page 46

those are probably the maps we used to experience as poorly designed
ones.
4.2 Mental maps
Figure 8 is an attempt to visualise the development of our “inner map” in a
very broad sense of the word and with heavy simplifications. The mental
map in our minds follows us during our whole life, but it is so rich, so
complex, so elusive and so dynamic that we never can transfer in it to
“hard copy”. The current explosive development may perhaps give a
chance for this in the future. The Google Earth may give a hint of one of
many possible developments.
Figure 8: The mental image of our surrounding world is an internal map of human mind. It
is built up of the same three components as other maps, but their contents change not
only from individual to individual but also during different ages for one and the same.
The semicircles represent the mental image of the surrounding world of a
hypothetical person in different stages of his/her life from very early child-
hood, through adultery to high ages. The size of the semicircles shows the
amount of information acquired and stored. The different sectors show the
composition of these information-masses regarding the three components,