UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Explaining World-Wide Variation in Navigation Ability from Millions of People: Citizen Science Project Sea Hero Quest

Spiers, HJ; Coutrot, A; Hornberger, M; (2021) Explaining World-Wide Variation in Navigation Ability from Millions of People: Citizen Science Project Sea Hero Quest. Topics in Cognitive Science 10.1111/tops.12590. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of Spiers_CoutrotHornberger2021Manuscript_revised.pdf]
Preview
Text
Spiers_CoutrotHornberger2021Manuscript_revised.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Navigation ability varies widely across humans. Prior studies have reported that being younger and a male has an advantage for navigation ability. However, these studies have generally involved small numbers of participants from a handful of western countries. Here, we review findings from our project Sea Hero Quest, which used a video game for mobile and tablet devices to test 3.9 million people on their navigation ability, sampling across every nation-state and from 18 to 99 years of age. Results revealed that the task has good ecological validity and across all countries sufficiently sampled (N = 63), age is linked to a near-linear decline in navigation ability from the early 20s. All countries showed a male advantage, but this varied considerably and could be partly predicted by gender inequality. We found that those who reported growing up in a city were on average worse at navigating than those who grew up outside cities and that navigation performance helped identify those at greater genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease. We discuss the advantages and challenges of using a mobile app to study cognition and the future avenues for understanding individual differences in navigation ability arising from this research.

Type: Article
Title: Explaining World-Wide Variation in Navigation Ability from Millions of People: Citizen Science Project Sea Hero Quest
Location: United States
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/tops.12590
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12590
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Aging, Culture, Dementia, Games, Gender, Spatial cognition, Wayfinding
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10140403
Downloads since deposit
0Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item