Getting From Here to There: Spatial Anxiety, Wayfinding Strategies, Direction Type, and Wayfinding Efficiency

Abstract

We investigated the efficiency with which men and women find their way to novel destinations using directions containing landmarks or cardinal descriptors and how such wayfinding performance is related to differences in spatial anxiety and wayfinding strategies. In two experiments, participants navigated through a model town using landmark or cardinal directions. Men and women were faster and more accurate when navigating based on cardinal directions than when navigating based on landmark directions. In addition, participants who reported greater spatial anxiety made significantly more navigation errors. As reliance on orientation strategies increased, navigation efficiency increased, suggesting that wayfinding strategies are related to navigation performance. These findings are discussed in relation to broader theoretical ideas concerning the dynamics of wayfinding processes.