4/1/2025 at 7:45:45 PM
I used to use paper maps a lot. I shifted to using GPS fed maps. Its a map, it orients (or not: you can control that) and your position is shown.What might not be clear in this, is they seem to be focussed on the "turn by turn" use of GPS, the "tell me how to get there" uses and not what I would call basic positional information from map reading. GPS fed navigation systems provide this guidance turn by turn, but GPS itself, the time signal and the display of your location is a bit ill-defined in this write up: I think I am "not using GPS" in the sense they mean.
I don't think this is a small distinction btw. "Using a GPS" needs to be more narrowly defined. "reading a map" is not (to the best of my knowledge) strongly correlated with a decline in the spatial memory aspect of the hippocampus.
If they want to compare, Orienteering/Rogaining would be the place to start I think. Or, London Taxi drivers.
I don't like turn by turn. The "take the next left" is highly conditional to speed, road conditions, and the existence of potentially two or more "next left" alternates, if the GPS unit thinks a blind alley which has road markings is not a left turn or not (for instance).
by ggm