Some theories of how we locate ourselves in place and space posit that each of us creates a personal \u201cglobal reference frame,\u201d constructed of environmental factors (a city\u2019s grid, a cathedral visible everywhere in town) and individual experience, such as where we live in town. Others say we orient ourselves depending on where we are\u2014parallel to the street we\u2019re on. According to either of these theories, the further away an invisible location is, the longer it takes us to point in its direction and the more likely we are to make a mistake.<\/p>\n The T\u00fcbingen study does not support these theories. In it, 26 residents of T\u00fcbingen (who had lived in T\u00fcbingen for at least two years) were put into a virtual-reality headset and seated in a chair that didn\u2019t allow them to swivel. Participants found themselves in the virtual three-dimensional photorealistic model of their hometown, at locations familiar to them, surrounded by fog masking all but the near distance. Then they had to point to an invisible location\u2014say, the main gate of the university or the fire station. The scenes changed, and so did the participant\u2019s spatial orientation. After 60 three-location trials, participants were asked to draw a map of the town including all the locations they\u2019d pointed to.<\/p>\n The results: Although participants drew differently oriented maps, everyone performed most accurately when facing north and got worse the further they deviated from north.\u00a0 The only explanation the researchers could figure was that they\u2019d all seen, and internalized, a map of T\u00fcbingen at some point, and Western maps are all oriented the same way\u2014north on top.<\/p>\n Meilinger conjectures that we rely on this mental map out of cognitive laziness. \u201cIf you acquire your knowledge from navigation only, the task [of pointing to an invisible target] requires you to coordinate a lot of things into the same reference frame\u201d\u2014 walked trajectories, experienced views, and so on. \u201cA map gives all that information within one frame.\u201d Frankenstein refines: \u201cThe memory of a map does not need to be updated by further experience, as it depicts all spatial relations undistorted within one reference frame. It therefore provides a very reliable source of spatial information.<\/strong>\u201d She emphasizes, that \u201cremembering a map is not the only strategy to solve spatial tasks. We do not necessarily get lost in environments where we have never seen a map of – e.g., buildings or our flat.\u201d And while participants used the map for pointing, the replication of the map (i.e., drawing a map) did not result necessarily in north-oriented maps. \u201cOur brain seems to choose the easiest and best strategy to solve spatial tasks, but relying on a mental city-map is one of them<\/strong>,\u201d concludes Frankenstein.<\/p>\n Meilinger says it\u2019s possible that the increasing reliance on GPS devices will eventually erase these memorized maps. \u201cIf somebody doesn\u2019t care to learn the environment, that\u2019s totally fine with me,\u201d he comments. \u201cBut they shouldn\u2019t complain if their mobile is not working and they are completely lost.\u201d How to avoid this? \u201cLook at maps before you start your trip, keep them at hand, but navigate yourself, and try to rely on your memory- it will work better than you expect! Give your brain the chance to train its spatial abilities \u2013 use them or lose them,\u201d adds Frankenstein.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Association for Psychological Science press release: You\u2019re driving from work to pick up your kids at school. The drive is familiar; you\u2019ve done it almost every day for… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,6],"tags":[42,18,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Map.jpg\" "\\"map\\"")
You\u2019re driving from work to pick up your kids at school. The drive is familiar; you\u2019ve done it almost every day for years. But how do you know in which direction the school is from your home? Landmarks? The sun? Animal instinct?\u00a0 Now, a new study published in Psychological Science<\/em>, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, yields an alternative answer that surprised even its authors, Julia Frankenstein, Betty J. Mohler, Heinrich H. B\u00fclthoff, and Tobias Meilinger, who collaborated at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in T\u00fcbingen, Germany. \u201cOur memory for our city of residence shows a map-like character<\/strong>,\u201d says Meilinger, a research scientist at the institute. \u201cAnd that map seems to be oriented towards the north<\/strong>.\u201d Frankenstein adds: \u201cAt least in western societies, where maps are north-oriented, and people usually use maps and are able to read them, they can – and will – rely on their memory of city maps for certain spatial tasks.\u201d<\/p>\n