{"id":1808285,"date":"2022-07-27T20:02:23","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T00:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1808285"},"modified":"2022-07-27T20:02:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T00:02:23","slug":"gps-negatively-impacts-spatial-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/07\/gps-negatively-impacts-spatial-memory\/","title":{"rendered":"GPS Negatively Impacts Spatial Memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Solnit points<\/a> to a 2020 study<\/a> that attempts to measure the impact of using GPS navigation devices on our spatial memory. After assessing 50 drivers, researchers found that drivers with more GPS experience had worse spatial memory when navigating without GPS. But more significantly, it\u2019s a longitudinal study: 13 of the participants (admittedly a small sample) were retested three years later, and greater GPS use correlated with a steeper decline in spatial memory.<\/p>\n

This is a single study, and a small sample, so I\u2019m hesitant to draw firm conclusions. And in any case it\u2019s not necessarily a surprising conclusion: the more you rely on a tool, the less able you are to do without it. Well, yes. When we talk about how GPS is destroying our ability to navigate or read a map, there is a presumption that this is an objectively bad thing. Except that I\u2019ve encountered too many people who couldn\u2019t navigate their way out of a bag before GPS. A lot of people who let their GPS receivers get them lost were, I think, pretty good at getting themselves lost without it.<\/p>\n

The question isn\u2019t whether GPS use atrophies an individual\u2019s ability to navigate: that\u2019s like worrying that a calculator reduces your ability to do sums in your head, or that a word processor excuses you from knowing how to spell. Of course it does<\/em>. Those of us who are good at navigation (or sums, or spelling) and think an important skill is being lost will clutch our pearls, but making something easier also makes it more accessible. The question is whether people are, on balance, at a societal level, getting lost less often. That\u2019s not a question neuroscience can solve, nor something you can test with an fMRI. I\u2019m not sure how to measure it, or even if it can be measured. But I\u2019d love to find out.<\/p>\n

Previously: Wayfinding: A New Book about the Neuroscience of Navigation<\/a>; Satnavs and \u2018Switching Off\u2019 the Brain<\/a>; McKinlay: \u2018Use or Lose Our Navigation Skills\u2019<\/a>; \u2018Could Society\u2019s Embrace of GPS Be Eroding Our Cognitive Maps?\u2019<\/a>; How GPS Eats Our Brains<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Solnit points to a 2020 study that attempts to measure the impact of using GPS navigation devices on our spatial memory. After assessing 50 drivers, researchers found that drivers with more GPS experience had… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254,752],"tags":[753],"class_list":["post-1808285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-gps","category-navigation","tag-spatial-ability","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1835420,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/12\/jobs-requiring-spatial-memory-and-navigation-associated-with-low-alzheimers-mortality-rates\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":0},"title":"Jobs Requiring Spatial Memory and Navigation Associated with Low Alzheimer\u2019s Mortality Rates","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 December 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"A population-based study suggesting that people in jobs that require real-time spatial processing\u2014taxi and ambulance drivers\u2014have the lowest rate of Alzheimer\u2019s-related death comes with a bunch of caveats and is reluctant to draw a direct correlation. Per Euronews, people good at spatial processing may be at lower risk regardless of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787422,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/06\/wayfinding-a-new-book-about-the-neuroscience-of-navigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":1},"title":"Wayfinding: A New Book about the Neuroscience of Navigation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 June 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"M. R. O'Connor's book Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World came out in April from St. Martin's Press. Not coincidentally, she's published a couple of pieces on the subject of that book, both of which focus on humans' ability to pay attention to their surroundings,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/9781250096968-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2427,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/07\/after-the-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":2},"title":"After the Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 July 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"William Rankin's\u00a0After the Map: Cartography, Navigation, and the Transformation of Territory in the Twentieth Century is out this month from the University of Chicago Press\u00a0(Amazon,\u00a0iBooks).\u00a0The book's website explains in depth what it's about, and makes\u00a0all the book's illustrations\u00a0and data available for free download.\u00a0[GIS Lounge] This book can be read at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"after-the-map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/after-the-map-209x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1805360,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/11\/london-cabbies-unique-brains-may-help-alzheimers-diagnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":3},"title":"London Cabbies\u2019 Unique Brains May Help Alzheimer\u2019s Diagnosis","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"8 November 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"The Taxi Brains Project explores whether London taxi drivers\u2019 legendary ability to navigate could help diagnose dementia. London cabbies, who since 1865 start by spending three or four years memorizing the London road network in order to learn the Knowledge, have been found to have an enlarged hippocampus, the part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Navigation"","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3758,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/01\/gender-differences-in-spatial-ability-are-a-social-construct\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":4},"title":"Gender Differences in Spatial Ability Are a Social Construct","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"17 January 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"A recent psychology paper challenges the notion that men are better than women at directions. When the same test was presented as a\u00a0measure of spatial ability that women typically did worse at, women did worse than men. But when the same test\u00a0was presented as a measure of empathy, women did\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Navigation"","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1787444,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/06\/the-economic-impact-of-gps-and-gps-outages\/","url_meta":{"origin":1808285,"position":5},"title":"The Economic Impact of GPS\u2014and GPS Outages","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 June 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"A new study quantifies the economic benefits of GPS: in the U.S. alone, it estimates around $1.4 trillion in economic activity resulting from private-sector GPS use, about half of that coming from improvements in the telecommunications sector. (Roughly a quarter came from the telematics sector, and 15 percent from location-based\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aviation"","block_context":{"text":"Aviation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/aviation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/faa-gps-outage-300x148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808285"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1808288,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808285\/revisions\/1808288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}