Is GPS All in Our Heads? Op-Ed

In other words, by using knowledge gained from navigation to link their perceived position to the corresponding position on a city map, participants could easily retrieve the locations from their memory of city maps -- which, after all, are typically oriented north. Navigating, keeping track of one&...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New York times
Main Author Frankenstein, Julia
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, N.Y New York Times Company 05.02.2012
EditionLate Edition (East Coast)
Subjects
Cognitive models
Global positioning systems
GPS
Memory
Navigation
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Summary:In other words, by using knowledge gained from navigation to link their perceived position to the corresponding position on a city map, participants could easily retrieve the locations from their memory of city maps -- which, after all, are typically oriented north. Navigating, keeping track of one's position and building up a mental map by experience is a very challenging process for our brains, involving memory (remembering landmarks, for instance) as well as complex cognitive processes (like calculating distances, rotating angles, approximating spatial relations).
ISSN:0362-4331