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The article is about how we navigate. I've noticed that some people are quite good at giving concise understandable directions and other are virtually unable to

by todd8 7y ago

The article is about how we navigate. I've noticed that some people are quite good at giving concise understandable directions and other are virtually unable to describe in any useful way how to drive a route they drive every day. I knew an intelligent, successful person that would give directions like "Turn at the stop sign two streets before the yellow house that has the flag pole. Then keep going, but at the train tracks you've gone too far so before that turn at the light. After Elm street, well right there they were going to build a house on that corner, but they didn't because the husband got a different job in Ohio and I didn't know them that well when they moved away. But anyway make a turn, right no left well the road kind of goes right but stay to the left, but not at the red sign in front of the old hardware store, instead I drive to the next street.", etc.

jvanderbot 7y ago
This person navigates by visual sequences and landmarks. Others navigate by direction and distance. You may be interested to learn that there is a large gender-correllated divide between the two methods. Learning about these two methods has made me much better about communicating directions, because unfortunately people dont often grok the "other" way. It is tempting to tell a "just so" story about this, but I do think direction / distance instructions helps two groups rendesvous or coordinate in new areas, whereas landmarks are natural ways to find things in known areas. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/14607168/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/14607168/
- GuB-42 7y ago
  These two ways of navigating are formalized in pilot training (VFR). The first one involves landmarks, and the training consists of finding good ones. They need to be highly visible, not ambiguous, and preferably referenced on maps. Following highways is a good strategy. The second, called dead reckoning, uses the watch and compass. With knowledge of your airspeed, wind speed, and heading, you can estimate your position after a set amount of time. Usually, a combination of the two is used: dead reckoning between landmarks.
- EternalAugust 7y ago
  tldr; the article you cite asserts that men encode w/ distances and directions more than women, not that they encode w/ distances and directions more than with landmarks and instructions ~~~ The article you cite specifically deals with how we encode information when we look at maps, so a few important qualifications. Men encode navigation in terms of distance and direction more than women _when dealing with maps_. I guess it's reasonable to extend the finding to say that men encode in terms of distance and direction more than women in general. Of course the study doesn't prove this, but there's so much other supporting research out there. Anyway, _more than women_ doesn't mean that men are encoding by distances and directions _more than by landmarks and instructions_. Nothing in the abstract of the article you cite supports that claim and I am personally rather skeptical of it. One sibling comment mentions that '(far more than not) people explain the route based on things trivial to them' (I assume this means "in terms of landmarks and instructions"). If most men were out encoding the majority of their navigation in terms of distance and direction then one would expect to encounter navigation explanations in terms of these ~half the time, yet we don't. Another comment (though this example feels a lot less persuasive to me) mentions that we use watches and compasses to navigate by distance and direction. If we're so naturally good at navigating with distances and direction why do we need the aid of these tools? In the opposite case we'd be so good at navigating with distance and direction that these tools wouldn't exist, but our visual and verbal memory would be so bad we'd need to carry around pictures and lists to help us navigate. Yet this isn'tt the case. Anyway, I think you only have to carefully examine how you personally navigate your environments to come to the realization that we naturally navigate mostly (almost exclusively?) in terms of landmarks and instructions. If I had to guess, distances and directions (and some other intuitions such as "place") are really only a feature of spatial awareness which does not normally extend beyond the "room" you're in and the things you're looking at, and which you usually only use to navigate within these immediate spaces. Interestingly, because of this you can sometimes cause weird dissonances by engaging system 2 thinking about the real spatial relationships in you environment. In my case, the room I'm in happens to be contiguous with a bathroom and I happen to be sitting about three feet away from a toilet that others use. Usually I'm not aware of this, but now I feel like my personal space has been weirdly violated.
tluyben2 7y ago
I travel a lot and so often (far more than not) people explain the route based on things trivial to them; go right at Jose-with-the-nose, go left at the office of Manuel etc. I have never been to the town and obviously this info is not on the map. Basically if google maps cannot find it, calling or whatsapp with the owner almost never helps at all.
- I_complete_me 7y ago
  The story about the foreigner asking for directions in Ireland comes to mind. The (helpful) reply: "You want to go to Ballywhereever? Well, I wouldn't start from here..." Top that!
  - lakkal 7y ago
    There's something similar associated with people from the state of Maine in the US: "You can't get there from here."
cellular 7y ago
Turn left where the old Johnson house used to be, then keep going until 2 miles before the gas station, then turn right. Some Chevy Chase movie=funny farm?

by todd8 7y ago

jvanderbot 7y ago

This person navigates by visual sequences and landmarks. Others navigate by direction and distance. You may be interested to learn that there is a large gender-correllated divide between the two methods. Learning about these two methods has made me much better about communicating directions, because unfortunately people dont often grok the "other" way. It is tempting to tell a "just so" story about this, but I do think direction / distance instructions helps two groups rendesvous or coordinate in new areas, whereas landmarks are natural ways to find things in known areas. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/14607168/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/14607168/

GuB-42 7y ago
These two ways of navigating are formalized in pilot training (VFR). The first one involves landmarks, and the training consists of finding good ones. They need to be highly visible, not ambiguous, and preferably referenced on maps. Following highways is a good strategy. The second, called dead reckoning, uses the watch and compass. With knowledge of your airspeed, wind speed, and heading, you can estimate your position after a set amount of time. Usually, a combination of the two is used: dead reckoning between landmarks.
EternalAugust 7y ago
tldr; the article you cite asserts that men encode w/ distances and directions more than women, not that they encode w/ distances and directions more than with landmarks and instructions ~~~ The article you cite specifically deals with how we encode information when we look at maps, so a few important qualifications. Men encode navigation in terms of distance and direction more than women _when dealing with maps_. I guess it's reasonable to extend the finding to say that men encode in terms of distance and direction more than women in general. Of course the study doesn't prove this, but there's so much other supporting research out there. Anyway, _more than women_ doesn't mean that men are encoding by distances and directions _more than by landmarks and instructions_. Nothing in the abstract of the article you cite supports that claim and I am personally rather skeptical of it. One sibling comment mentions that '(far more than not) people explain the route based on things trivial to them' (I assume this means "in terms of landmarks and instructions"). If most men were out encoding the majority of their navigation in terms of distance and direction then one would expect to encounter navigation explanations in terms of these ~half the time, yet we don't. Another comment (though this example feels a lot less persuasive to me) mentions that we use watches and compasses to navigate by distance and direction. If we're so naturally good at navigating with distances and direction why do we need the aid of these tools? In the opposite case we'd be so good at navigating with distance and direction that these tools wouldn't exist, but our visual and verbal memory would be so bad we'd need to carry around pictures and lists to help us navigate. Yet this isn'tt the case. Anyway, I think you only have to carefully examine how you personally navigate your environments to come to the realization that we naturally navigate mostly (almost exclusively?) in terms of landmarks and instructions. If I had to guess, distances and directions (and some other intuitions such as "place") are really only a feature of spatial awareness which does not normally extend beyond the "room" you're in and the things you're looking at, and which you usually only use to navigate within these immediate spaces. Interestingly, because of this you can sometimes cause weird dissonances by engaging system 2 thinking about the real spatial relationships in you environment. In my case, the room I'm in happens to be contiguous with a bathroom and I happen to be sitting about three feet away from a toilet that others use. Usually I'm not aware of this, but now I feel like my personal space has been weirdly violated.

tluyben2 7y ago

I travel a lot and so often (far more than not) people explain the route based on things trivial to them; go right at Jose-with-the-nose, go left at the office of Manuel etc. I have never been to the town and obviously this info is not on the map. Basically if google maps cannot find it, calling or whatsapp with the owner almost never helps at all.

I_complete_me 7y ago
The story about the foreigner asking for directions in Ireland comes to mind. The (helpful) reply: "You want to go to Ballywhereever? Well, I wouldn't start from here..." Top that!
- lakkal 7y ago
  There's something similar associated with people from the state of Maine in the US: "You can't get there from here."

cellular 7y ago

Turn left where the old Johnson house used to be, then keep going until 2 miles before the gas station, then turn right. Some Chevy Chase movie=funny farm?