Coutrot and colleagues set out to learn more about the way where we grew up influences our sense of direction; what they learned may help explain previously baffling programming research findings.
The Coutrot-led team report that “how the environment in which one grew up affects later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world. Overall, we found that people who grew up outside cities were better at navigation i.e., had a better sense of direction.
More specifically, people were better at navigating in environments that were topologically similar to where they grew up. Growing up in cities with a low street network entropy – less heterogeneous, more grid-like (for example, Chicago) led to better results at video game levels with a regular layout, whereas growing up outside cities or in cities with a higher street network entropy – more heterogeneous, streets frequently not meeting at right angles (for example, Prague) led to better results at more entropic video game levels.” So, the design/form of where you grow up influences your sense of direction/wayfinding ability for the rest of your life.
A.Coutrot, E. Manley, S. Goodroe, C, Gahnstrom, G. Filomena, D. Yesiltepe, R. Dalton, J. Wiener, C. Holscher, M. Hornberger, and H. Spiers. 2022. “Entropy of City Street Networks Linked to Future Spatial Navigation Ability.” Nature, vol. 604, pp. 104-110, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04486-7
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.