Day 44 of 150 Spatial Difficulty 3/10
Wayfinding strategies vary: geometry vs. landmark cues
Quick answer
Wayfinding strategies vary: geometry vs. landmark cues. Today's question (Wayfinding strategies) asks about a finding from Sandstrom, N. J., Kaufman, J., & Huettel, S. A. in 1998. The correct option is Sandstrom, Kaufman & Huettel (1998) — full explanation, primary source, and glossary cross-links below.
Today's question
In virtual-environment navigation tasks, men on average rely more on Euclidean/distal cues, while women on average rely more on landmark sequences. The first widely-cited demonstration was:
Reveal the answer and explanation
Correct: B — Sandstrom, Kaufman & Huettel (1998)
Sandstrom, Kaufman & Huettel (1998) gave participants a virtual water-maze task in which the hidden platform could be located either by distal Euclidean cues (geometry of the room) or by a sequence of nearby landmarks. Both strategies were available. Men preferentially used the geometric strategy and remained accurate when landmarks were removed; women preferentially used landmarks and were more impaired by their removal. Subsequent reviews stress that mean differences are modest and overlap heavily, but the strategy distinction has held up across cultures.
About the source
Sandstrom, N. J., Kaufman, J., & Huettel, S. A. (1998). Males and females use different distal cues in a virtual environment navigation task. Cognitive Brain Research, 6(4), 351–360.
Every Cognition Bible question cites a primary source — a paper, book chapter, or monograph that exists, that we can point to on Google Scholar, and whose finding the question accurately summarizes. No fabricated authority strings, no name-drops without paper-level grounding.
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