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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat did we ever do before GPS? How did people find their way around?
Is GPS All in Our Head?
ITS a question that probably every driver with a Garmin navigation device on her dashboard has asked herself at least once: What did we ever do before GPS? How did people find their way around, especially in places theyd never been before?
Like most questions asked in our tech-dependent era, these underestimate the power of the human mind. It is surprisingly good at developing mental maps of an area, a skill new research shows can grow stronger with use. The question is, with disuse say, by relying on a GPS device can we lose the skill too?
The notion of a mental map isnt new. In the 1940s, the psychologist Edward C. Tolman used rats in mazes to demonstrate that learning consists not in stimulus-response connections but in the building up in the nervous system of sets which function like cognitive maps.
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Navigating, keeping track of ones 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). Stop doing these things, and itll be harder to pick them back up later.
How to avoid losing our mental maps? The answer, as always, is practice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/is-gps-all-in-our-head.html?_r=1&hp
DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)ErikJ
(6,335 posts)redqueen
(115,103 posts)They always seem to get things wrong, and I like looking up the directions and picking the way I want to go, not following the often incorrect instructions from some annoying computer.
Mopar151
(9,989 posts)For some truckers who's misplaced faith in GPS has put them MILES into the boondocks, unable to turn around. One tow bill was $12000!
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)it's tried to give me crazy directions.
A couple weeks ago I was trying to get to Trinity Center, CA, which is along a numbered state highway. The directions told us to turn down a muddy dirt forest service road in January.
I know how that movie ends.
elleng
(130,978 posts)more food for thought!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101611599
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)elleng
(130,978 posts)and we all need the info!
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)worked well, I was always getting lost. Between the GPS and cell phone, I never fear getting to where I'm going, both have enhanced my life greatly.
elleng
(130,978 posts)My inner has been pretty good, and younger daughter's is great! Told my folks once, 'When driving, rely on Daughter#2 for directions, NOT Daughter#1!'
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)if I had to drive alone. "Will she or will she not make it to her destination".
rox63
(9,464 posts)Maps, landmarks and good old memory work fine for me.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)Memorizing 25,000 city streets balloons the hippocampus, but cabbies may pay a hidden fare in cognitive skills
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=london-taxi-memory
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)PVnRT
(13,178 posts)I don't use the navigation things, but I have used my cell phone to get me to a place I'm unfamiliar with. I guess I'm inferior or something.
I have lived in a small town for 5 years where I had never traveled before. After 5 years, I know the town well but when it comes to getting to another small town in the area, where I have never been, I have to be sure to get good directions. In addition, a lot of county roads aren't E-W or N-S, they curve all over the place in the middle of no where. If you get lost, it can be hard to figure it out on your own.
REP
(21,691 posts)Before I had a car with GPS, it was Thomas Guides and a 50/50 chance of finding where I was going in San Francisco.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Robb
(39,665 posts)Christ.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)It made quite the splash at the time.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)elleng
(130,978 posts)LOVE maps, always have. I remember studying maps of Europe for '57 family trip, and have never given it up!
P.S., just drove to NCarol!
Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)No GPS for me, either.
EFerrari
(163,986 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)You could completely blindfold him in the middle of a playground and spin him around and around and no matter where you stopped him he knew what direction he was facing. We discovered this one day when the teacher did an experiment on all of us and he was the only one who got it right every single time.
Kind of strange. He had a built in GPS even before there was such a thing.
Don
Bonhomme Richard
(9,000 posts)before I leave.
I found GPS to be a pain in the ass. Exception...the sailboat at night in the ocean.
librechik
(30,674 posts)Warpy
(111,281 posts)and managed to get lost for about 5 minutes 3 days before I moved away. Some places are easier to get lost in than others and a city that was planned by cows and drunken sailors is the easiest of all.
I doubt GPS would have helped. Continuing to walk until I found a street name that was familiar did.
However, I still rely on inner "maps." I'm old and consider a GPS in a car to be a silly crutch.
Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)They're an Aussie aboriginal people whose language (also called Guugu Yimithirr) whose language has no words for right or left (and, iirc, no words for in front of or behind). Instead, they use compass directions at all times (so, for example, I'd currently be typing with my south hand while looking at the computer monitor to the east). In order to do this, they apparently need to be exquisitely sensitive at all times to geographic location. Need GPS? They are GPS!
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Solly Mack
(90,773 posts)I've a GPS available but I just never think to use it. lol
I always get the maps out and plot my route that way. I learn it - then apply it.
My husband is the opposite. He adores his GPS.
Oldtimeralso
(1,937 posts)In the town of Leoni MI a semi trailer got stuck of a crossing due to the driver following his GPS and not his head. A driver with a CDL is responsible for all clearance's of his truck and load. He was driving a low-boy trailer that bottomed out on the crossing.
First of all it usually is blatantly obvious that a railroad crossing is raised and the driver was not paying attention. Secondly all railroad grade crossings have a sign on their control box as to who to notify if there is a problem. He failed to call. If he had called the train would have been held short of the scene by the dispatcher. Hope he has good insurance!
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,350 posts)Before that, we could study the moss on trees, the hoof tracks through the forest, etc.
Life Long Dem
(8,582 posts)I use this all the time. Once I know what the area looks like, I can find the place better. I do have a GPS, but use Google maps.
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)Liberal_in_LA
For the most part I manage well withouth a GPS.. I use map, geograpic points in the area Im in, and not least, I read this little things who are on the side of the road, telling where I are and where the roads goes.. Not allways easy to do in 80-100kmh but for the most part I manage really well.. I usally also prepare reading the map before I go away on adwentures now and then..
For the most part I drive in my local area, where I don't are unsue where most things are.. So I guess Im little spoiled there...
And, even tho modern GPS is a marvel of genius, it is not perfect.. as many trailer drivers have experienced first hand in Norway, where they are stuck on roads who are to small to the trailer.. Or have been lured into the wilderness and dosen't know how to get out again - and have to call police and resque to get them out of it.. That happend all the time..
Diclotican
southernyankeebelle
(11,304 posts)bikebloke
(5,260 posts)Biking from Belgium to Holland, I had a terrible map (Himmel & Frey...avoid them). Camp grounds marked where there had never been any in all the history of humankind. The same with roads. Finally, I found myself in a spot that looked like the map corresponded with the spot I was in. Took a compass reading, then bushwhacked my way. And arrived exactly where I was going, albeit through their back road.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)We had cities laid out in an addressing system.
These tools were beyond use by many of the directionally challenged.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Depending on the person, it could take a lot of time. Both the describer and the direction-taker could be of varying geographical intelligence!
Recently I had a lady who kept calling me - she just could not find my place! She was right on the road and kept passing it. I described the landmarks of the area and she just got them confused with other places. Finally I physically went out front and waved at the cars on the highway until she drove along and could see me!
Clearly she did not have a GPS!
Johnson20
(315 posts)trof
(54,256 posts)Still do it for cross country trips.
marmar
(77,084 posts)...... GPS is more of a distraction than a help to me.
former9thward
(32,028 posts)Mine tells me if there is a traffic jam ahead and how to get around it. I love it.
MrCoffee
(24,159 posts)"Is GPS All in Our Head?" made me think of Lee Mercer Jr.
Jennicut
(25,415 posts)I am horrible at directions. Most dyslexics are. I can even get a little lost even with my GPS. Its good for people like me.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,748 posts)Or you radio a flight service station and get a DF steer.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)I was with a friend once who had a Garmin in his car and it told us to take a given route. We ended up in a subdivision with no other exit. then it froze and got confused. I told him to turn here and go to the next cross street(the whole subdivision was little meandering strrets with no signs) and go so far and turn again and pretty soon we found ourselves at an exit and got to where we were going. he just looked at me with "How did you do that?"
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Don't own one.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)An exercise in topological futility best left to fifth degree black belt origami sensei.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)...just like WE had to!
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)My brain must be wired to it cuz I always seem to know N and South. Strong hunting instinct I guess.
NJCher
(35,688 posts)Oh yeah, isn't that the truth. People's abilities in giving directions vary tremendously. In fact, you find out what poor communicators some people are when asking them for directions. I can remember a few cases, however, when I asked for and received very thoughtful, good directions.
So GPS is a boon for people like me. I have PTSD and a very poor short-term memory. If someone says "take a right, follow Hogan Trail 2 miles, then left, then right" I might get "take a right" and that's about it. I would have to write the directions down, and a pen and paper isn't always handy.
After the car accident that gave me PTSD, I quit going a lot of places because it was just too stressful. Also, these days it's hard to find anybody who knows anything. Then GPS came along and it helps immensely. Now I can go wherever I want, even at night, and not be stressed out about ending driving endlessly, trying to find my destination.
Cher
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)(After killing the rest of the crew) Look, Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.
randr
(12,412 posts)I think the GPS system is almost as great a step forward as the discovery of radio it is still nice to turn off the noise and listen to your own music.
phylny
(8,381 posts)I need to drive a lot to areas I'm unfamiliar with, and we've moved a great deal as well. So, I rely on my Garmin, which rarely gives me bad advice. If it does, remember, "A better route is available."
My husband, a former airborne ranger, has the best sense of direction and directional memory of anyone I've ever met. Unfortunately, he cannot use the automatic coffeemaker. Or so he says