The acquisition, coding, storage, manipulation, and recall of spatial information within the mind (also called mental mapping). Cognitive mapping simplifies the complexity of the landscape, and a mental map influences behaviour. See R. Downs and D. Stea, eds. (2005). Cognitive trails represent ‘the creation of knowledge by movement through the natural and intellectual environment’ (Turnbull (2007) Geog. Res. 45, 2).