are mental representations of physical locations. Humans and animals use them to find their way and to help recall important features of the environment. The term was inroduced by psychologist E. C. Tolman (1) to explain how rats learned the locations of rewards in a maze. A cognitive map provided the rat wih a useful model of the environment. Irrelevant or unimportant information was excluded from the mental map. Thus, cognitive maps can be very different from an actual place. The differences between the mental representation and the physical characteristics of a location may reveal what humans and animals consider important. The cognitive map is likely to show where they go and the routes used.