Wayfinding

The way we think about physical space has been crucial to our evolution: the ability to navigate over large distances in prehistoric times gave Homo sapiens an advantage over the rest of the human family. Most of us are still able to find our way around an increasingly complex physical world, maintaining a sense of direction in unfamiliar locations and taking shortcuts along paths we have never used. In Wayfinding, Michael Bond explores how our brains make the ‘cognitive maps’ that keep us orientated, even in places that we don’t know. He considers how we relate to places, and asks how our understanding of the world around us affects our psychology and behaviour.