A scientific view of reality would assert that the nature of the world lies in properties that are inherent in the world and that exist independent of the observer; such properties can be observed using objective procedures. In contrast, many social theorists claim that reality is socially constructed. There is also a third major perspective on reality: many cognitive scientists believe that the realities that people experience are a product of interactions between human bodies and senses on one hand, and the human environment on the other. While not incompatible, these three views put different emphases on the relative importance that scientific 'reality', cognitive processes, and social interactions have in shaping human behavior.
The word 'representation' is used both in cognitive science and in social theory. In cognitive science, a representation is "a set of conventions about how to describe a set of things" (Winston, 1984, p. 21). Winston goes on: "A description makes use of the conventions of a representation to describe some particular things." Cognitive representations are formed by experience with an external world, and are subject to modification every time they are 'used' in cognition. Mental representations play a key role in top-down (schema-driven) interpretation of sensory inputs or memories. A model based on this is known as experiential realism (Lakoff, 1987; Mark and Frank, 1996). In social theory, however, the concept of representation is less well defined, but often seems concerned with distortions.
Even if experiential realism is 'correct', it is obvious that
other people, and artifacts constructed by people, form a major
part of the environments in which individual human cognitive
representations normally develop. Learning a natural language is
a social experience, and since language and concepts are so
closely related, language may play a key role in promoting
convergence between the cognitive and social views of the
construction of reality. Of particular interest in geography is
the role of artifacts and behaviors that represent spatial
information, namely maps, diagrams, and verbal descriptions for
wayfinding and navigation.