MAPS,METAPHORS AND MUDDLES

The idea of a cognitive or mental map has been a source of confusion in the geographical literature for some time. Downs suggests that the confusion can be removed if we give consideration to the role of maps in metaphors and analogies. This raises important questions, but treating the map as a double metaphor does nothing to clarify these issues. Cartographic skills are not the result of introspection and hypothesizing such maps-in-the-head can only impede our understanding of spatial behavior.