Finding our way around after GPS!

Have we become so dependent on our SatNav?

Researchers have learned that using GPS-type systems affects our fundamental ability to find our way from one place to another.

Knowing about these findings may encourage you to keep your GPS systems with you whenever possible or take other steps (such as, gasp, using paper maps) when GPS is not available to prevent navigation-related “unpleasantnesses.”

Heft, Schwimmer, and Edmunds report that “One group of participants drove a simulated car in VR [virtual reality] along a designated path while relying on visual GPS guidance. It was expected that use of the GPS display would draw attention away from temporally continuous path information. A second group initially drove the same route without GPS guidance. Both groups drove the path a second time without navigational assistance. Overall, the percentage of correct actions taken at intersections (transitions) during the second trial were significantly lower for the first group who initially drove the route with visual GPS guidance as compared to those who initially traveled the route without it.”

Harry Heft, Kelsey Schwimmer, and Trenton Edmunds.  “Assessing the Effect of a Visual Navigational System on Route-Learning from an Ecological Perspective, Frontiers in Psychology.