The process of cognitive mapping guides the user to concretely break down an object into its components and associations. What happens afterward is that the user not only knows WHAT he/she feels towards the object but more importantly WHY he/she has those feelings.
In the example of the prescription bottle, a user may harbor negative feelings towards the bottle e.g. frustration, irritation, etc. By starting with the object rather than the emotion, we get a clearer picture of the path from object to emotion. There may be many different paths between the same object to the same emotion. For example, if the user feels frustration, the path may have originated with the child-proof lid and repeated failures at opening the bottle or with the plastic orange container that is non-degradable and washes ashore on the beach that she spends her family vacations at. But if we probed at the emotion beginning with the emotion, it may be more difficult to pull out one reason from another.
Cognitive mapping can be practiced with every way that we express ourselves. Associations can be created for any signal or stimuli able to be interpreted by the human body. Associations are attached to things we can see, hear, smell, taste, feel. And if associations exist, then cognitive mapping can be practiced to elucidate those connections. So then, cognitive mapping is most useful when we want a very specific user response.
For example, in a job interview, we want to potential employer to attach very specific associations to us, the applicant. If that association is professionalism, then we can practice cognitive mapping on our attire (sight), our interview question responses (audio), handshake (touch).