Online mobile map effect: how smartphone map use impairs spatial memory
Masashi Sugimoto, Takashi Kusumi, Noriko Nagata, Toru Ishikawa
Abstract
This article examined people’s spatial memory and navigation performance when they learned an environmental route using a smartphone map and a paper map. Our results showed that the use of a smartphone map impaired spatial learning and knowledge acquisition. Specifically, participants learned a route less accurately when they used a smartphone map than when using a paper map, revealed by a worse route retracing performance. Although navigation accuracy decreased for the second, unaided walk after the first walk aided with a smartphone map, participants’ self-evaluation in terms of state anxiety and confidence ratings did not show a statistically significant difference. This suggests that smartphone map users did not perceive the memory impairment caused by the smartphone map use.