Interesting. I find that I am more aware with it. Being pretty much always on, it makes me think about direction and location versus mindlessly driving.
http://www.us.orienteering.org/
I know that I’m much less likely to remember a route if I follow it on GPS than if I plotted it out on a map, simply because I’m getting turn-by-turn directions. Every once in a while I haul out a good old map just to keep my brain working.
Breaking news: Female found map challenged, situation normal.
Slap a set of butter bars on her and hand her a compass and a map. She's got a commission.
/johnny
Look at the map on the GPS, don’t just listen to the directions. That helps a lot because you can prepare for what’s ahead and know where you are going.
No different than the auto-dial feature on the phone, after a couple of years it’s fun to watch people sitting there going “What the hell is my wife’s cell phone number again?” when it’s gone.
What do these people do if they are on a road, but the GPS says it isn’t there?
For people like me, who’s sense of direction is the stuff of legend, a GPS is a God-send. I have never had a sense of direction; and that defect has caused me humiliation, embarassment and frustration beyond words.
If I can see the sun, and know what time it is; I’m capable of guessing as well as the next person. But turn me loose in a neighborhood I’m unfamiliar with, and it may just as well be a maze containing a Minotaur. It is blind luck that gets me out, not skill of any sort.
So, when I go driving, I’m not ashamed to admit that I listen to my wife. She has a sense of direction and I do not. However, when I have the GPS, the GPS usually wins the ensuing arguement.
I gave a bush aboriginal fellow a lift one night. It was late about 0300 and he was sleeping in a bus shelter. He had caught the bus down from Central Australia and had got in after most of the public transport had stopped for the night.
He could hardly speak any English (a real tribal fellow) and had only been to Adelaide once before. Adelaide is a city of about 1 million people. I managed to get out of him that he was going to his sister’s house that he had only ever seen in daylight, once before. He gestured for me to drive. As we drove along he would gesture for me to turn right or left and I could see his eyes taking everything about where he was and where he was going. Eventually he lead me straight to his sister’s house which was in a back street in a suburb I had never been in. I was amazed! His sense of where he was in the world was uncanny.
Cheers
Mel
It may well. It is a crutch. Just like spell check has harmed our ability to spell.
2. Keep the detail options low and the scale large.
3. Always have a "real map" for backup. GPSs sometimes go a little wonky or give directions that don't take into account local conditions, so you need to compare with the real map when in doubt.
GPS has nothing to do with ones sense of direction, it's simply a very useful tool (like a compass or protractors).
My husband is completely "tone deaf to directions", although not to the extent of this poor soul. I have an excellent sense of direction and was always able to 'see' where I was in reference to 'North', whether I had a compass or not. I excelled at orienteering in Scouts, he scraped by in the Army by using a good compass and reading his maps with great attention to detail.
Our extensive use of GPS has changed none of this. He's still in trouble if his conks out, and I'm not.
Just got back from wandering over Spain and Italy and used my cell phone HTC Touch Pro2 and a software program called Copilot. It performed quite well but I needed to double check all the directions since 10% of the time it would take me 3 miles out of my way just to go around the block.
GPS is great but it needs to always be combined with common sense and basic map reading skills
Kendall was perfectly normal. ... She was simply unable to form a "cognitive map," the mind's way of representing spatial relationships.
I submit that this is not "perfectly normal."
People were dumb without it. With it they are just dumb people who know where they are.
GPS is plugged into every ballistic missile and cruise missile in our arsenal.
Her case has nothing to do with GPS.
Sense of direction has to do with the ‘mental map’ that a person has formed of the area.
Sense of direction won’t get you to find your way in Boston, especially at night.
I know that my magnetic sensors in my head don’t work as well as they used to.
I still use paper maps and a ...gasp... magnetic compass. My GPS enabled friends have trouble finding places while I am generally early.