4 ms·

I've known people who have a profoundly good sense of direction. They always know which way is North, etc. Not sure if they are just more attuned to visual cues

I've known people who have a profoundly good sense of direction. They always know which way is North, etc. Not sure if they are just more attuned to visual cues such as position of sun, shadows, stars, etc. or possibly have better sensitivity to magnetic fields?

mrec 5y ago
That seems like a fairly straightforward question to settle experimentally, using advanced scientific apparatus like a bag over the head.
- b112 5y ago
  I'd fund that study, if only to see birds with tiny paper bags over their heads.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    Plastic lens over the eyes but still gnarly looking
remarkEon 5y ago
I have this, and it was a running joke when I was a kid. "remarkEon - what way is North?" and I'd always get it right. I think it's just good spatial awareness - nothing magical or any special sensitivity to magnetic fields. For example, I still get turned around after exiting the subways in New York on occasion (who doesn't).
- lazide 5y ago
  Same here. Hyper awareness explains it, and it definitely isn’t reliable enough to say it is based on some extra sensory input. Just paying attention more than most. Not sure if you’ve experienced similar, but I also have been aware of things like where the trash cans and bathrooms are, where the fire extinguisher is, where the power outlets are, etc. without being asked or consciously attempting to find them, and can give accurate spatial directions to them without thinking about it much, which seems to be similarly unusual. I just remember and integrate the knowledge as I happen to run across various data.
  - remarkEon 5y ago
    I think this is just pattern recognition, really. There's only a few places where it makes sense to put e.g. a fire extinguisher or power outlets so you can make an inference about where they're at without actively thinking too much about the layout of a building.
    - lazide 5y ago
      Of course! North is also a VERY predictable and easy to figure out direction with a little thought if you can see the sky, and anyone with a smart phone (99% of the population now?) have GPS and high resolution maps and satellite photos accessible at a moments notice on it. Yet people get lost all the time, and I bet if you asked 10 people which way was north walking on the street, you’d be lucky to get 3 which pointed in the right direction (and 2 of those would only be right through sheer luck). I’ve been around groups several times now when a fire happens, and had to grab extinguishers because of unexpected fires when I’ve been around, and most folks can’t figure out where a fire extinguisher is (let alone get it) when a fire happens even after they were shown it when they arrived.
- pradn 5y ago
  At least in the middle of Manhattan, I've learned to rely on the direction of cars up and down avenues to tell which way I'm facing. I know that Eighth Ave goes up because I live and work around there, and so can extrapolate for the other major avenues. That, and that subway exits often given you their cardinal orientation relative to the center of the intersection they erupt from.
  - remarkEon 5y ago
    This may sound crazy, but after a while I could tell what direction I was going in Manhattan by how things ... smelled. Closer to Battery and I'm getting a little more peaty. Closer to Harlem or Morningside and I'm getting a little more rusty iron.
- rpmisms 5y ago
  I could do this when I was young, too, even with my eyes closed after walking around blindfolded. Went away after puberty.
- insilicophage 5y ago
  I also have this. And I also think it's just a synthesis of many clues and I guess some people don't perform that same synthesis (my wife for example). Things like "last known direction", "position of sun", "time of day", "this side of the tree is wet but the other isn't", and probably a bit of grid neurons somewhere doing dead reckoning.
  - hanoz 5y ago
    I also have this a bit, but when I moved from London to Sydney, my sense of it flipped, i.e. 'up' on my internal map was now South not North, from which I concluded it was not magnetic.
    - saltcured 5y ago
      Similarly, I had a disturbing sense of disorientation when first visiting a tropical area. It went away once I figured out that the midday sun was casting shadows south, towards the equator instead of north towards the pole. I had not been consciously reading the shadows but as soon as I accepted this fact, I no longer felt alarmed. I wasn't there long enough to really evaluate my new, localized sense of direction.
- nkrisc 5y ago
  It's basically just an innately good sense of dead reckoning. I was especially good at it growing up in Chicago where pretty much every street is either N/S or E/W, it made it much easier. You just needed an intuition of the difference between your left turns and right turns, or you could just explicitly count it.
rozab 5y ago
How's this for an experimental setup: get a cohort of people going in for surgery under general anaesthesia, and randomly place them in a north or south facing windowless room afterwards :) no added risk, and pretty minor cost

mrec 5y ago

That seems like a fairly straightforward question to settle experimentally, using advanced scientific apparatus like a bag over the head.

b112 5y ago
I'd fund that study, if only to see birds with tiny paper bags over their heads.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  Plastic lens over the eyes but still gnarly looking

remarkEon 5y ago

I have this, and it was a running joke when I was a kid. "remarkEon - what way is North?" and I'd always get it right. I think it's just good spatial awareness - nothing magical or any special sensitivity to magnetic fields. For example, I still get turned around after exiting the subways in New York on occasion (who doesn't).

lazide 5y ago
Same here. Hyper awareness explains it, and it definitely isn’t reliable enough to say it is based on some extra sensory input. Just paying attention more than most. Not sure if you’ve experienced similar, but I also have been aware of things like where the trash cans and bathrooms are, where the fire extinguisher is, where the power outlets are, etc. without being asked or consciously attempting to find them, and can give accurate spatial directions to them without thinking about it much, which seems to be similarly unusual. I just remember and integrate the knowledge as I happen to run across various data.
- remarkEon 5y ago
  I think this is just pattern recognition, really. There's only a few places where it makes sense to put e.g. a fire extinguisher or power outlets so you can make an inference about where they're at without actively thinking too much about the layout of a building.
  - lazide 5y ago
    Of course! North is also a VERY predictable and easy to figure out direction with a little thought if you can see the sky, and anyone with a smart phone (99% of the population now?) have GPS and high resolution maps and satellite photos accessible at a moments notice on it. Yet people get lost all the time, and I bet if you asked 10 people which way was north walking on the street, you’d be lucky to get 3 which pointed in the right direction (and 2 of those would only be right through sheer luck). I’ve been around groups several times now when a fire happens, and had to grab extinguishers because of unexpected fires when I’ve been around, and most folks can’t figure out where a fire extinguisher is (let alone get it) when a fire happens even after they were shown it when they arrived.
pradn 5y ago
At least in the middle of Manhattan, I've learned to rely on the direction of cars up and down avenues to tell which way I'm facing. I know that Eighth Ave goes up because I live and work around there, and so can extrapolate for the other major avenues. That, and that subway exits often given you their cardinal orientation relative to the center of the intersection they erupt from.
- remarkEon 5y ago
  This may sound crazy, but after a while I could tell what direction I was going in Manhattan by how things ... smelled. Closer to Battery and I'm getting a little more peaty. Closer to Harlem or Morningside and I'm getting a little more rusty iron.
rpmisms 5y ago
I could do this when I was young, too, even with my eyes closed after walking around blindfolded. Went away after puberty.
insilicophage 5y ago
I also have this. And I also think it's just a synthesis of many clues and I guess some people don't perform that same synthesis (my wife for example). Things like "last known direction", "position of sun", "time of day", "this side of the tree is wet but the other isn't", and probably a bit of grid neurons somewhere doing dead reckoning.
- hanoz 5y ago
  I also have this a bit, but when I moved from London to Sydney, my sense of it flipped, i.e. 'up' on my internal map was now South not North, from which I concluded it was not magnetic.
  - saltcured 5y ago
    Similarly, I had a disturbing sense of disorientation when first visiting a tropical area. It went away once I figured out that the midday sun was casting shadows south, towards the equator instead of north towards the pole. I had not been consciously reading the shadows but as soon as I accepted this fact, I no longer felt alarmed. I wasn't there long enough to really evaluate my new, localized sense of direction.
nkrisc 5y ago
It's basically just an innately good sense of dead reckoning. I was especially good at it growing up in Chicago where pretty much every street is either N/S or E/W, it made it much easier. You just needed an intuition of the difference between your left turns and right turns, or you could just explicitly count it.

rozab 5y ago

How's this for an experimental setup: get a cohort of people going in for surgery under general anaesthesia, and randomly place them in a north or south facing windowless room afterwards :) no added risk, and pretty minor cost