Topic
Spatial cognition research, explained
6 open-access spatial cognition studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Do sex and menstrual cycle phase change how people navigate and find words?
Men navigated faster and women produced more words, but the menstrual cycle only shifted which navigation strategy women did best with, not their overall performance.
- Do fearful faces make it harder to find your way?
Seeing fearful faces before retracing a route stopped men, but not women, from improving on their second trip through a virtual building, while angry faces had no effect.
- Do people stick to one way of giving directions across tasks?
Frisbee players showed no consistent personal preference for 'left/right' versus 'home/away' style directions across a navigation task and a sports task; the task, not the person, shaped which was easier.
- Do compasses or distant mountains help people learn a new place?
Giving people a compass or a visible mountain range while they learned a virtual campus did not improve their memory for its layout.
- Do children remember a route better if they plan it themselves?
Children who drew their own route across a map remembered its length and shape more accurately than children who traced someone else's identical route, but they were no better at remembering the characters and objects they met along the way.
- Does exercise help explain why men score higher on spatial tests?
Young men beat young women on most spatial tests and also exercised more, and statistically, differences in exercise, especially vigorous exercise, accounted for part of the spatial gap.