Europa als mentales Modell in den Köpfen von Lernenden

Abstract The paper discusses concept maps as an instrument for the collection and reconstruction of lexical-semantic coded knowledge and demonstrates to what extent the elicited data can be interpreted as representations of mental models using onomosiological and framesemantic approaches. To this end, a theoretical framework is presented that discusses and legitimizes the use of concept maps due to their similarity to the ordering principles and structures of the mental lexicon. Finally, the application of thise tool, i. e. the concept maps, will be illustrated and discussed using one example from a more extensive pilot project conducted by the international EurEd research network.