Considering traditional models of segregation and the analysis of the determinants of spatial segregation, the paper emphasizes and explains the role of spatial cognition in segregation emergence. We use a MAS based on cognitive agents who are able to build a cognitive map of their environment, depending on their range of vision, as they explore, discover and learn places of their environment. The agents develop spatial behaviours that create situations identified in the literature as “chosen segregation” or “involuntary segregation”. We discuss the specification of the model and the segregated configurations that emerge. These configurations underlie the importance of space on the analysis of individual and collective dynamics.