Monday, January 23, 2012
Tourist information? …Sorry I’ve forgotten
Are you proud to know your way around your area and happy to direct visitors to wherever it is they’ve just asked you directions for?
Well don’t keep relying on your sat-nav when on the road, because you might start to lose the ability to remember the layout of places.
According to researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, in Germany, we remember our way around by creating a mental map.
Our mental map is created, in part, by looking at a real map of an area. However, our mental map is prone to being forgotten if our brain gets used to being guided around with no real knowledge of its location or surroundings.
If you want to avoid losing your mental map, and your ability to create new ones, then you might want to follow the advice given by one of the researchers.
“Look 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.”
No more sat-navs for us – we’re building up our mental maps! (Although we might turn the sat-nav back on for confusing ring-roads…)
Photo © @boetter via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: directions, layout, location, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, mental map, navigate, ring-road, road, sat-nav, surroundings
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posted by Fuse @ 1:08 AM 
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