Biology subjects

Wiener, J. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Wiener, J. M..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

London taxi drivers exploit neighbourhood boundaries for hierarchical route planning

Humans show an impressive ability to plan over complex situations and environments. A classic approach to explaining such planning has been tree-search algorithms which search through alternative state sequences for the most efficient path through states. However, this approach fails when the number of states is large due to the time to compute all possible sequences. Hierarchical route planning has been proposed as an alternative, offering a computationally efficient mechanism in which the representation of the environment is segregated into clusters. Current evidence for hierarchical planning comes from experimentally created environments which have clearly defined boundaries and far fewer states than the real-world. To test for real-world hierarchical planning we exploited the capacity of London licensed taxi drivers to use their memory to construct a street by street plan across London, UK (>26,000 streets). The time to recall each successive street name was treated as the response time, with a rapid average of 1.8 seconds between each street. In support of hierarchical planning we find that the clustered structure of Londons regions impacts the response times, with minimal impact of the distance across the street network (as would be predicted by tree-search). We also find that changing direction during the plan (e.g. turning left or right) is associated with delayed response times. Thus, our results provide real-world evidence for how humans structure planning over a very large number of states, and give a measure of human expertise in planning.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

From overconfidence to task dropout in a spatial navigation test: evidence for the Dunning-Kruger effect across 46 countries

Overconfidence and the Dunning-Kruger effect have been reported in many cognitive domains. However, there is little examination in the field of spatial navigation. Here, we examined overconfidence in navigation ability in 376,836 participants from 46 countries. We tested navigation using our virtual wayfinding task in the app-based video game Sea Hero Quest, examined self-ratings of navigation ability and how many game levels participants had played before they dropped out. The main goal of this analysis was to investigate how performance of overconfident participants influenced the dropout rate from our experimental task embedded in a video game. First, we measured and modelled overestimation at baseline game levels. Age was found to be the strongest predictor of overestimation across the entire sample. Higher age was associated with increased overconfidence in all 46 countries and 11 distinct cultural clusters. Female participants were more likely to overestimate their performance across most of the life course (19-59 years old), however older men (60-70 years old) displayed highest overconfidence amongst all age-gender groups. Overconfidence also varied widely across countries. Secondly, we estimated performance on follow-up game levels for those who were previously identified as overconfident and we found that those who were more likely to display the Dunning-Kruger effect (i.e., poor performance while being overconfident) were predominantly female and older participants. Finally, survival analysis methods with time-dependent covariates revealed that poor wayfinding performance, while being overconfident, was one of the strongest predictors of task dropout. This Dunning-Kruger bias on participants dropout existed universally across all countries in our data.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Handedness and its association with education and spatial navigation assessed in over 400,000 participants across 41 countries

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes within a single country. Determining the effect of handedness on spatial ability requires a large, cross-cultural sample of participants, and a navigation task with real-world validity. Here, we overcome these challenges via the mobile app Sea Hero Quest. We analysed the navigation performance from 422,772 participants from 41 countries and found no reliable evidence for any difference in spatial ability between left- and right-handers across all countries. Using 749,037 participants from the larger sample, we replicate previous findings that age, gender, and country of residence have an impact on the prevalence of left-handedness, and found an effect of education on left-handedness prevalence in China, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Our study clarifies the factors associated with spatial ability and outlines new ways in which cultural patterns influence handedness. Statement of RelevanceWhat is the relation between handedness and navigation ability? Evidence so far has been mixed, and findings from small-scale and large-scale tasks seem to point in opposite directions. Part of the reason is that cultural and sociodemographic differences have a significant impact on both spatial ability and handedness. Tackling the question requires a large, cross-cultural sample of participants performing an ecologically valid navigation task. Here, we employ a mobile app, Sea Hero Quest, to test the navigation ability of a large number of participants across many different countries. What we find is that there is no reliable connection between handedness and navigation ability. Then, we use our data to explore the prevalence of left-handedness across countries, and find that age, gender, and country of residency all have an effect on the ratio of left-handedness. Moreover, we find an effect of education on left-handedness in China, Indonesia, India, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2022

Cultural determinants of the gap between self-estimated navigation ability and wayfinding performance: evidence from 46 countries.

Cognitive abilities can vary widely. Some people excel in certain skills, others struggle. However, not all those who describe themselves as gifted are. One possible influence on self-estimates is the surrounding culture. Some cultures may amplify self-assurance and others cultivate humility. Past research has shown that people in different countries can be grouped into a set of consistent cultural clusters with similar values and tendencies, such as attitudes to masculinity or individualism. Here we explored whether such cultural dimensions might relate to the extent to which populations in 46 countries overestimate or underestimate their cognitive abilities in the domain of spatial navigation. Using the Sea Hero Quest navigation test and a large sample (N=383,187) we found cultural clusters of countries tend to be similar in how they self-rate ability relative to their actual performance. Across the world population sampled, higher self-ratings were associated with better performance. However, at the national level, higher self-ratings as a nation were not associated with better performance as a nation. Germanic and Near East countries were found to be most overconfident in their abilities and Nordic countries to be most under-confident in their abilities. Gender stereotypes may play a role in mediating this pattern, with larger national positive attitudes to male stereotyped roles (Hofstedes masculinity dimension) associated with a greater overconfidence in performance at the national level. We also replicate, with higher precision than prior studies, evidence that older men tend to overestimate their navigation skill more than other groups. These findings give insight into how culture and demographics may impact self-estimates of our abilities.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Learning The Knowledge: How London Taxi Drivers Build Their Cognitive Map of London

Licenced London taxi drivers have been found to show changes in the grey matter density of their hippocampus over the course of training and decades of navigation in London (UK). This has been linked to their learning and using of the Knowledge of London, the names and layout of over 26,000 streets and thousands of points of interest in London. Here we examined the process of how this knowledge is acquired and we detail key steps that include: systematic study of maps, travel on selected overlapping routes, the mental visualisation of places and the optimal use of subgoals. We provide the first map of the street network covered by the routes used to learn, allowing insight into where gaps in the network exist. The methods could be widely applied to aid spatial learning in the general population and may provide insights for artificial intelligence (AI) systems to efficiently learn new environments.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

The role of memory and perspective shifts in systematic biases during object location estimation

Our previous research highlighted a systematic bias in a spatial memory task, with participants correctly detecting object movements in the same direction as the perspective shift, whilst misjudging the direction of object movements if those were in the opposite direction to the perspective shift. The aim of the current study was to investigate if the introduction of perspective shifts results in systematic biases in object location estimations. To do so, we asked participants to encode the position of an object in a virtual room and to then estimate the objects position following a perspective shift. In addition, by manipulating memory load (perception and memory condition) we investigated if the bias in object position estimates results from systematic distortions introduced in spatial memory. Overall, our results show that participants make systematic errors in estimating object positions in the same direction as the perspective shift. This bias was present in both the memory and the perception condition. We propose that the systematic bias in the same direction as the perspective shift is driven by difficulties in understanding the perspective shifts that may lead participants to use an egocentric representation of object positions as an anchor when estimating the object location following a perspective shift, thereby giving rise to a systematic shift in errors in the same direction as the perspective shift.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2020

Cities have a negative impact on navigation ability: evidence from 38 countries

Cultural and geographical properties of the environment have been shown to deeply influence cognition and mental health[1-6]. While living near green spaces has been found to be strongly beneficial [7-11], urban residence has been associated with a higher risk of some psychiatric disorders [12-14] (although see [15]). However, how the environment one grew up in impacts later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here, we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game[16] to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world. Overall, we found that people who grew up outside cities are better at navigation. More specifically, people were better at navigating in environments topologically similar to where they grew up. Growing up in cities with low Street Network Entropy (e.g. Chicago) led to better results at video game levels with a regular layout, while growing up outside cities or in cities with higher Street Network Entropy (e.g. Prague) led to better results at more entropic video game levels. This evidences the impact of the environment on human cognition on a global scale, and highlights the importance of urban design on human cognition and brain function.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2018

Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app (Sea Hero Quest) is predictive of real-world navigation performance: preliminary data

Virtual reality environments presented on smart-phone and tablet devices have potential to aid the early diagnosis of conditions such as Alzheimers dementia by quantifying impairments in navigation performance. However, it is unclear whether performance on mobile devices can predict navigation errors in the real-world. In a preliminary study we tested 30 participants (15 female, 18-30 years old) on their wayfinding ability in our mobile app Sea Hero Quest and on novel real-world wayfinding task in London (UK). We find a significant correlation between virtual and real-world navigation performance and a male advantage on both tasks, although smaller in the real-world environment. These results are consistent with prior studies which have reported navigation in the virtual environments are predictive of real-world navigation performance and a consistent male advantage. Future research will need to test a larger sample size and older participants.

neuroscience↗