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April 7, 2026Journal of Environmental PsychologyOpen Access

Do mobile maps help or hinder? Investigating their role in spatial knowledge acquisition across repeated navigation episodes

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Authors

QYQi YingCHChristopher HiltonSFSara Irina Fabrikant

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Overview

Outdoor navigation experiment reveals that mobile maps can enhance certain spatial knowledge while hindering others.

Key Points

  • This research investigates how mobile maps affect spatial knowledge acquisition in unfamiliar environments during navigation.
  • Conducted a within-subjects experiment with 45 participants in real urban settings.
  • Participants navigated using a mobile map and without map assistance across repeated episodes.
  • Spatial knowledge was assessed through tasks including route reversal and landmark recognition.
  • Increased exposure led to better acquisition of landmark, route, and survey knowledge under both conditions.
  • Mobile maps aided in pointing and route reversal performance, but hindered initial landmark learning.
  • No significant differences were found in route direction or distance estimation performance between conditions.

Cite This Study

Ying et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69d49ecbb33cc4c35a227826https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103031
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