Is GPS killing your brain?

I called up Toru Ishikawa, a navigation researcher at the University of Tokyo, last night (the next morning for him). We talked about his research into how GPS affects our ability to learn our way around a new place. Two years ago, he had about 60 men and women learn a short route through a residential suburb of Tokyo--one third with no navigational aid, one third with paper maps, and one third with GPS. Then he tested them (asked them to travel the route independently and timed them, had them point from their destination back to where they started the journey, had them draw sketch maps of the route, etc). On almost every metric, those who learned au naturale kicked ass. In the test phase, they navigated the route faster and more efficiently (fewer wrong turns), drew more accurate maps, and later rated the task easier than those who used GPS. The map users couldn't match them either, although they did better than the GPS group on many of the scores.

What's this mean? It could be evidence that GPS is melting our brains and we should all stop using them before we turn into zombies who can get from here to there but have no idea where here or there is (or anything in between). There have been similar questions about how the Web (specifically Google) may be changing how we think (and not for the better). But let me venture to say that these experiments are not going to spark any such cultural backlash. There are too many people who love the convenience of these gizmos, and others who would never venture out of the house without them.

So, maybe GPS navigation systems should just be designed differently--possibly using a variety of graphics or voice commands--something that might reinforce our navigational synapses rather than short-circuiting them. Or maybe, GPS will be whatever it will be and this type of research will simply document its neurological impact and provide more evidence that every navigational aid we've introduced over the millennia (from big buildings to street signs to Google Maps) has permanently eroded our innate wayfinding abilities. This idea, of course, raises the question of whether this is an evolutionary change, some permanent rewiring of our brains, or if we could resurrect those abilities with "training."

Personally, I've never used a GPS and I'm in no hurry to get one (no one would call me an "early adopter" but I'm no luddite either). No doubt, I'd have an easier time driving to new places with a GPS. But I feel like I'd lose something, too, and not just the more durable route knowledge that Ishikawa investigates. There's more than easy navigation to be gained from looking around you, studying what's passing by as you drive, and even from the occasional wrong turn.