Pattern of representation of countries in cognitive maps of the world with special reference to Africa

Although for a long time environmental psychologists have been concerned with the nature and process of environmental perception and its representation in map forms, global sketch maps have not been popular in mainstream research. Further, conceptual and theoretical insights into the subject are yet to be fully achieved; and quite significantly, comparative analysis has been limited by the concentration of research efforts in the developed countries of Europe and America. In the same vein, the challenge of clarifying the psychological, spatial and social underpinnings of cognitive maps and their contributory role in day-to-day space-related problem solving and decision-making brings to the fore the need for cross-disciplinary and across-regional studies. This paper examines the world's image from an African perspective, exploring those countries of the world that are best known to Africans and the factors responsible for the pattern of recall and representation in the maps drawn by them. Some 656 maps were collected from 13 sites in 11 countries. Analysis of the frequency of inclusion of countries was first carried out; chi-square analysis was then performed on the frequency of inclusion by level of a country's economic development, population, geographical size and relative location from Nigeria and Africa. The results from qualitative interpretation show that while images of countries may have been influenced by composite and multifaceted factors, embracing historical and cultural associations, media images and invocations, Africans, nevertheless, tended to recall nations following some descending hierarchy, with ‘developed/geographically prominent countries’, ‘we’ (i.e. Africa), ‘others’ and ‘unknown’ countries as discernible clusters. From statistical test, population and spatial size of countries, the proximity of countries to the assessors and to some extent, level of economic development, were found to be significant in accounting for the pattern of recall and representation in cognitive maps. The paper shows that in spite of the evident limitations of mental sketches they hold some promise for our understanding of cross-regional variations in the images of the world, which could be important to the building of relevant social and geographical education to foster global understanding.