Cognitive Mapping
Co-Design / Design Anthropology
Definition
Cognitive mapping is using participatory mapping to understand the cultural and psychological aspects of human behavior and how they influence each other.
“There is scant research documenting the use of participatory mapping to address more abstract factors such as social norms and customs, which have a strong influence on individual behaviors.”
— Darcy White, Using Community Mapping to
Understand Family Planning Behavior Pg 408
Procedure
Preparation
Bring mapping supplies, such as large paper and markers
Make sure to contact community leaders that can give you access and help others understand your goals
Make sure to reach out to participants that may normally be overlooked.
Bring recording device
In person
Make sure that you create a comfortable space and address your participate in a kind manner to set them at ease.
Explain the goal of the mapping.
Help them understand that you want to understand their thinking and ask them to pretend that they are creating a map for an alien who has never been there before and is completely unaware of local customs. Encourage them to include notes about what not to say around a certain part of town and why.
Start from the beginning of a typical day and work your way through prompting the participant to draw their path and mode of transportation, as well as what they do and who they interact with along the way.
Then ask about a non typical day, what are other important activities they partake in.
Analysis
Take the maps and overlay them. Find the commonalities and differences.
Then go back to the recordings and try to understand why the differences occurred between participants.
Try to notice when there were times that the participant felt uncomfortable and omitted something or required prompting to include.
Lastly try to identify opportunity spaces in the maps.
Use Case
While researching waste management for the city of Bloomington my team interviewed a grad student about her lived experience since moving to Bloomington.
Strengths
Mapping has been used for thousands of year for a good reason. It is a way for one person to communicate how they interact with the world with another person.
Cognitive mapping is extremely useful because it can get at the underlying thought process of an individual as they move around their community.
Weaknesses
One problem with asking people to map their lived experience is that sometimes when you tell someone to portray their lives they take liberties and are not fully truthful.
