Spatial orientation

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Spatial orientation (also: spatial sense or directional sense ) is an ability of humans and animals that helps them to find their way around in space and in a direction-related manner and to move appropriately. Several sensory organs work together for this purpose, especially the eye, ear, muscles and balance.

Even plants have certain properties for guidance. For example, they turn their leaves towards the main direction of incidence of light , and take care of the growth of the shoot axes and trunks adapted to the perpendicular direction , etc. a. the pathways in the phloem or in the woody xylem .

For spatial orientation methods in technology and surveying, see Orientation (geodesy) .

City plan in the form of a mill board : Freudenstadt

Elements of the sense of direction

Some basic spatial orientation skills are innate, but the sense of orientation can be significantly improved through practice and memory training. The elements that contribute significantly to this include:

For many animal species, there are additional orientation aids, for example

In humans, the sense of direction is very different depending on the way of life and cultural area and is strongly influenced by experience and practice. Age and gender also play a role.

Acquisition of spatial orientation

Spatial orientation is learned primarily through movement in space. While the small-scale orientation is practiced in the first years of life, in the years up to maturity the learning of geographical orientation follows. This can practically only be internalized through physical movement in space. Therefore, the ability to orientate is only rudimentarily developed, especially in people who were mainly transported in vehicles in their childhood or who had little opportunity to move around independently. Due to the changed living conditions of modern humans, the ability for spatial orientation is therefore diminishing.

Loss of spatial orientation due to navigation systems

Tunnel vision or even keyhole effect through navigation systems

As a result of today's widespread electronic route planners and navigation systems , many drivers no longer have a car atlas or road maps in their vehicle. The younger ones can often no longer read maps (see: Understanding and using maps ). This has already resulted in a sometimes dramatic loss of spatial orientation. For example, some younger people are no longer able to describe a route to someone unfamiliar with the area in their home town without electronic aids. A woman arrived in Duisburg instead of Rügen by entering the wrong holiday destination . The type and design of the navigation systems also play a role in the impending loss of spatial orientation.

One speaks of orientation illiterate ; a cabaret artist even said: "A GPS in the car is the first step towards assisted living."

Keyhole effect

"Prof. Dirk Burghardt from the TU Dresden speaks of a 'keyhole effect' for navigation users: on the small displays on the car window or in the dashboard, they only see a small section of their surroundings while driving, they drive but do not learn anything about the area they are just passing through. And that has consequences. Scientists from the University of Salzburg sent twenty drivers on a ten-kilometer test track, half of them equipped with a GPS, the other half with a map. The way back had to be found without tools. The result: Card users were back faster and were less likely to get lost. Apparently they had actively dealt with their surroundings during the journey there and made decisions on their own. This created a mental map in their head that they could later refer to. The navigation system users are completely different. As passive 'command recipients', they relied relatively thoughtlessly on the respective instruction, without memorizing branches or forks along the way. It took them an average of ten minutes longer to get back, and they got lost almost three times as often. "

Spatial orientation (close range)

The basis of the ability to orientate is a close interplay of vision, balance and muscle sense, which is controlled mainly in the stem or cerebellum . It expresses itself u. a. in very targeted reflexes , e.g. B. if you fall or stumble . If these protective reflexes were not via the spinal cord but the cerebrum , they would be too slow. If the interplay of the senses is disturbed, confusion and disorientation ( vertigo ) occur, which often cause dizziness or nausea.

As a rule, one is hardly aware of one's own spatial position , but only when there are unusual or contradicting sensory messages (e.g. when turning quickly or when dancing ). How much happens unconsciously here can be seen in the eye muscles , for example . With every head movement, they turn their eyes "automatically" so that only the surroundings can be seen clearly.

The sense of sight and balance cannot always adapt to unusual movements in space - such as flying or diving - so that some training is required, such as training in instrument flight , visual exercises or diving school. When flying, the problem is mostly turning movements, which begin unnoticed until their growth surprises the eye and sense of space. When diving it is u. a. the changed body position and perception (angles and distances appear distorted by about 1 third in the water), and in other unfamiliar situations e.g. B. fear , darkness, changed air or cold.

Large-scale orientation

In contrast to spatial orientation, which is largely unconsciously regulated, orientation according to landscape or cardinal points , in traffic, unknown buildings, etc. similarly shaped more by thinking, ideas and experience. In natural locomotion (pedestrian navigation) and when driving slowly you can z. For example, you can memorize the route covered by direction and distance , look for guiding line structures (paths, borders, bodies of water, embankments, buildings ...) or let yourself be guided on them by prominent points ( waymarks , signposts, visual stimuli, sounds, smells, etc.) .

Gender differences

According to various examinations, men can usually remember the routes better than women and find their way around a little easier on maps . This can be partly due to developmental and cultural history ( hunting , traditional leadership roles, etc.), but differences in brain structure and strategy are also the cause. The latter can be z. B. investigate how men and women construct directions:

While most men concentrate on points of the compass and distances, women mainly orientate themselves on waymarks. More recent studies suggest that both sexes evaluate different information. Women think more in context and therefore remember waymarks and landmarks better, while men tend to "save" visual clues as spatial structures .

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
If reference is made here to specific test series and future research results, then the exact publication should be cited (e.g. title, journal, year) to which this information relates.

After a long series of tests by two researchers from the Royal Society (Jones and Healy), the orientation ability of both sexes is about the same when it comes to visual characteristics. In the case of predominantly spatial information, however, men score significantly better because they can use this and visual cues equally well. In closed rooms, however, women find their way around better: they pay more attention to the visual stimuli that are more important here, while men divide their attention between these and the less important 3D information. Future research will show whether these two types of orientation can be traced back to specific advantages in early human history.

A study with half a million participants from 57 different countries showed that there are significant gender differences, especially in countries where women are socially disadvantaged.

See also

literature

  • J. Hinkelbein, E. Glaser (Ed.): Aviation medicine . UniMed-Verlag, Bremen 2007.
  • S. Ruff and H. Strughold: Outline of aviation medicine . Joh.Ambrosius Barth, Munich 1957.
  • Teldix GmbH: Pocket book of navigation . Industrie-Verlag Gehlsen, Heidelberg 1967.
  • K. Blawat (text), S. Neuner (illustrations): You have achieved your goal. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 265, weekend edition from 17./18. November 2018, rubric: Knowledge, pp. 36–37; about orientation in humans, animals and insects

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rüdiger Wehner : Polarization vision - a uniform sensory capacity? The Journal of Experimental Biology 204, 2001, pp. 2589-2596, PMID 11511675 .
  2. ↑ Harald Wolf : Odometry and insect navigation. Journal of Experimental Biology 214, 2011, pp. 1629-1641, PMID 21525309 .
  3. ^ Nigel Foreman et al .: Locomotion, active choice, and spatial memory in children. In: The Journal of general psychology , April, 1990, doi: 10.1080 / 00221309.1990.9921139
  4. ↑ a b ADAC: Why sat navs are like crutches. Retrieved April 13, 2018 .
  5. ↑ They have no idea of ​​their destination. In: Zeit-Online. Retrieved April 13, 2018 .
  6. ↑ 3sat: Don't let your sense of direction wither away. Orientation training is missing due to navigation systems. Retrieved April 13, 2018 .
  7. ↑ The cabaret artist Philip Simon in Nightwash (WDR)
  8. ↑ Katrin Blawat: Navigation - How the sense of direction can be trained. In: sueddeutsche.de. November 20, 2018, accessed December 7, 2018 .