City dwellers navigate less well – KIJK Magazine

People who grew up in cities have poorer navigation skills than those who grew up in more rural environments, new research finds†

Did you grow up in the countryside? In this case, you’ll probably be able to get your bearings much better than your urban counterpart. The environment you grew up in has a major effect on the development of your navigation skills, according to new research from University College London, the University of Lyon and the University of East Anglia. The scientists published their research in Nature†

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Game

For the study, data from more than 390,000 participants from 38 different countries (including the Netherlands) was analyzed. These people have contributed to science in a very beautiful way; through the game Sea Hero Quest player. In this game, you are in a boat and navigate through the water to get to different checkpoints, which are marked on a map. Players who grew up in rural or suburban areas found much more efficient routes to checkpoints than players who lived in cities as children. Where the participants lived at the time of the study was found to have no effect on their performance.

But the cities are very different from each other. This is also clearly reflected in the research. For example, it seems that people from cities like Prague perform much better than participants who grew up in Chicago, for example. The big difference here is in the way the city is laid out.

Chicago consists almost entirely of straight lines; you can drive for miles and barely have to touch your handlebars. Because the city consists of such straight lines, it is very predictable. The more predictable where someone grew up, the less likely they are to navigate on average. Prague, 2000 years old, is another story. In this historic city, there is much less structure in construction. As a result, for example, there are many roads that run diagonally and the place is built very unpredictably.

Difference

The contrast between city dwellers and rural dwellers is striking, that’s clear. But this difference also varies greatly between countries. In the United States, for example, the difference is six times greater than in Romania. Indeed, American cities are often made up of straight lines, whereas this was much less often the case in Romania.

According to researchers, growing up in the countryside or in a complex city is better for your navigation skills, as the complicated design of roads and paths forces you to be careful. You need to know which direction you’re walking in and you need to remember more streets and landmarks, writes researcher Antoine Coutrot from the University of Lyon in a Press release† This also applies to your navigation skills; it is practice makes perfect.

Sources: Nature† phys.org

Image: Wikimedia Commons