Recent research has found that playing video games regularly is linked to better navigation skills, while relying on GPS systems does not appear to impact one’s ability to find their way. The new study provides insight into how modern technology influences our cognitive functions, specifically in terms of wayfinding ability. The study was published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Navigation is a critical cognitive function that involves complex processes such as planning routes, reading maps, identifying landmarks, and maintaining a sense of direction. The ability to navigate effectively is vital for daily life and can impact safety and independence.
Poor navigation skills can lead to distress and dangerous situations, especially for individuals with cognitive impairments or conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, where navigation deficits are often early symptoms. By understanding how daily activities, such as playing video games and using GPS devices, affect navigation skills, researchers aimed to uncover factors that might enhance or impair this essential cognitive ability.
The study’s motivation also stemmed from previous findings suggesting that video games might improve spatial cognition, while reliance on GPS could potentially weaken navigation skills. Video games often require players to navigate complex virtual environments, which might train their spatial awareness and problem-solving abilities. In contrast, using GPS devices could offload cognitive processes that would otherwise be engaged during navigation, potentially leading to a decline in these skills.
“Understanding how daily activities influence individual differences in navigation ability is important given that the use of rising modern-day technologies may both exercise one’s navigation abilities, e.g. potentially video games, and be used to offload the cognitive processes that normally occur during navigation, e.g. GPS-assisted devices. However, the impact of video games and reliance on GPS has not been directly tested at a large scale using an objective navigation task,” said study author Emre Yavuz, a PhD student in cognitive neuroscience at University College London.
To investigate these relationships, the researchers used the mobile app Sea Hero Quest, a validated tool for assessing navigation skills. Sea Hero Quest is a spatial navigation game that has been shown to predict real-world wayfinding performance effectively. The study involved 822 participants from the United States, including 367 men and 455 women, with an average age of 26.3 years.
Participants were recruited through the Prolific database and completed a series of tasks within the Sea Hero Quest app to measure their navigation performance. The app requires players to navigate a virtual environment in a boat, searching for sea creatures based on maps provided at the beginning of each level.
In addition to the navigation tasks, participants answered self-report questionnaires about their reliance on GPS and video game habits. The GPS reliance questionnaire assessed how frequently participants used GPS in various situations over the past month. For video game habits, participants reported the number of hours they spent playing video games each week, the types of games they played, and the devices they used.
The researchers found that participants who engaged in ten or more hours of video gaming per week exhibited significantly better navigation performance than those who played less. This finding supports the idea that video games, which often require players to navigate complex virtual environments, can enhance spatial awareness and cognitive processes related to wayfinding.
Interestingly, the genre of video games played did not significantly alter this relationship, suggesting that the cognitive benefits of gaming might be broad and not restricted to specific types of games.
The researchers also considered the possibility that the Sea Hero Quest game itself, being a video game, might advantage participants who are more familiar with gaming interfaces. However, they found no significant association between video game experience and performance on the tutorial level of the game, which required minimal navigation skills. This suggests that the observed benefits of video game play on navigation performance are specific to tasks that require cognitive demands like orientation and spatial memory, rather than simply familiarity with gaming controls.
“The finding that video gaming was significantly associated with navigation performance only for the harder game levels was surprising/intriguing, given that it opens up the possibility that video gaming may be particularly important when navigation is more complex – a hypothesis that hadn’t really been objectively tested by previous studies,” Yavuz told PsyPost.
The study’s findings on GPS reliance were also surprising. Despite previous research suggesting that heavy reliance on GPS might impair navigation skills by offloading cognitive processes to the device, the researchers did not find evidence that reliance on GPS systems had any impact, positive or negative, on navigation performance.
“If GPS use is bad for us, those who report using it the most should be worse navigators,” Yavuz explained. “We find no effect at all. GPS use is not linked to navigation skill – at least for wayfinding in new places with a map as we tested.”
But the study, like all research, includes limitations. The sample was limited to participants in the United States, primarily young adults, which might not reflect broader population trends. Additionally, the study relied on cross-sectional data, meaning it captured a single moment in time, which limits the ability to draw causal conclusions.
“This study was cross-sectional and revealed associations between variables,” Yavuz noted. “Further work will need to determine causal associations between GPS use/video gaming and human spatial navigation performance, including intervention-based and real-world studies.”
Despite these limitations, the study opens up exciting avenues for future research. One important direction is to explore whether the benefits of video gaming on navigation skills can be replicated in real-world settings. While the Sea Hero Quest app is a valid tool for assessing navigation skills, it remains a virtual environment.
The study also raises questions about the potential for using video games as a tool for cognitive training. If playing certain types of video games can enhance navigation skills, it might be possible to develop targeted video game-based interventions to improve cognitive functions. This could be particularly beneficial for individuals with navigation impairments, such as those with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive disorders.
“Our studies provide a platform for future intervention-based and causal studies looking at the specific genres of video game which may be important in shaping their navigation performance, as well as determining how the way in which one interacts with/uses GPS-assisted devices may be important in shaping their navigation performance,” Yavuz said.
The study, “Video gaming, but not reliance on GPS, is associated with spatial navigation performance,” was authored by Emre Yavuz, Chuanxiuyue He, Christoffer J. Gahnstrom, Sarah Goodroe, Antoine Coutrot, Michael Hornberger, Mary Hegarty, and Hugo J. Spiers.
