Keeping North in Mind: How Navigators Reason about Cardinal Directions

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to test whether misalignment effects found when people use maps to determine left and right turns also occur when they make cardinal-direction judgments. Prior research has shown that when an exocentric reference frame, such as a map, is misaligned with a person's egocentric reference frame, people take longer to determine left and right turns. Using both a static task and a dynamic, flight-simulator task, this experiment showed that when exocentric (map) and egocentric reference frames are misaligned, cardinal-direction judgments can be severely impaired, more so than direction-of-turn judgments. Analysis of participants' verbal protocols suggests that people use both mental rotation and non-rotational strategies in making cardinal-direction judgments.