EARLY AGE USE OF GPS AND SPATIAL ABILITIES

Will using GPS from a very early age impact spatial abilities?

“I think it may,” Dr Ramberg says. “Environmental factors have been shown to affect how clever you become. For example, mandatory IQ testing on all Norwegian army recruits born from 1962 and onwards shows that the IQ scores first gradually went up and peaked in men born in 1975, but have after that gradually fallen every year (the Flynn and reversed Flynn effect).

“Research shows that the reason for this is not explained by genetic, but by environmental factors. Children who are exposed to another environment than men born in 1975, may risk getting lower IQ than them. My impression is that children today may go out less, read less and be more on computers and phones than their parents.

“There is no need to use a GPS unless you really need it. Use electronic devices, like phones and computers, only when you need them,” he says. Controlled by devices day and night, children today might grow up to see navigation from memory or a paper map as anachronistic as rote memorisation or typewriting, says O’Connor. “But for them especially, independent navigation and the freedom to explore are vital to acquiring spatial knowledge that may improve hippocampal function. Turning off GPS and learning navigational skills could have enormous cognitive benefits later in life. “Over the past four years, I’ve spoken with master navigators from different cultures who showed me that practicing navigation is a powerful form of engagement with the environment. Finding our way on our own

— using perception, empirical observation and problem-solving skills — forces us to attune ourselves to the world. And by turning our attention to the physical landscape that sustains and connects us, we can nourish “topophilia,” a sense of attachment and love for place. You’ll never get that from waiting for a satellite to tell you how to find a shortcut,” says O’Connor.