The Skeleton In The Cognitive Map: A Computational and Empirical Exploration

Experts seem to find routes in complex environments by finding a connection from the source to a “skeleton” of major paths, then moving within the skeleton to the neighborhood of the destination, making a final connection to the destination. The authors present a computational hypothesis that describes the skeleton as emerging from the interaction of three factors: (a) The topological map is represented as a bipartite graph of places and paths, where a path is a one-dimensional ordered set of places; (b) a traveler incrementally accumulates topological relationships, including the relation of a place to a path serving as a dividing boundary separating two regions; and (c) the wayfinding algorithm prefers paths rich in boundary relations so they are likely to acquire more boundary relations. This positive-feedback loop leads to an oligarchy of paths rich in boundary relations. The authors present preliminary computational and empirical tests for this hypothesis, and provide initial results.