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Global determinants of navigation ability

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Global determinants of navigation ability. / Coutrot, Antoine; Silva, Ricardo; Manley, Ed et al.
In: Current Biology, Vol. 28, No. 17, 10.09.2018, p. 2861-2866.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Coutrot, A, Silva, R, Manley, E, de Cothi, W, Sami, S, Bohbot, V, Wiener, J, Hoelscher, C, Dalton, R, Hornberger, M & Spiers, H 2018, 'Global determinants of navigation ability', Current Biology, vol. 28, no. 17, pp. 2861-2866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009

APA

Coutrot, A., Silva, R., Manley, E., de Cothi, W., Sami, S., Bohbot, V., Wiener, J., Hoelscher, C., Dalton, R., Hornberger, M., & Spiers, H. (2018). Global determinants of navigation ability. Current Biology, 28(17), 2861-2866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009

Vancouver

Coutrot A, Silva R, Manley E, de Cothi W, Sami S, Bohbot V et al. Global determinants of navigation ability. Current Biology. 2018 Sept 10;28(17):2861-2866. Epub 2018 Aug 9. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009

Author

Coutrot, Antoine ; Silva, Ricardo ; Manley, Ed et al. / Global determinants of navigation ability. In: Current Biology. 2018 ; Vol. 28, No. 17. pp. 2861-2866.

Bibtex

@article{298423c25e47429fb69afdda19b33926,
title = "Global determinants of navigation ability",
abstract = "Countries vary in their geographical and cultural properties. Only a few studies have explored how such variations influence how humans navigate or reason about space. We predicted that these variations impact human cognition, resulting in an organized spatial distribution of cognition at a planetary-wide scale. To test this hypothesis we developed a mobile-app-based cognitive task, measuring non-verbal spatial navigation ability in more than 2.5 million people, sampling populations in every nation state. We focused on spatial navigation due to its universal requirement across cultures. Using a clustering approach, we find that navigation ability is clustered into five distinct, yet geographically related, groups of countries. Specifically, the economic wealth of a nation was predictive of the average navigation ability of its inhabitants, and gender inequality was predictive of the size of performance difference between males and females. Thus, cognitive abilities, at least for spatial navigation, are clustered according to economic wealth and gender inequalities globally, which has significant implications for cross-cultural studies and multi-centre clinical trials using cognitive testing.",
keywords = "spatial cognition, cross-country analysis, crowdsourcing, gender differences, aging",
author = "Antoine Coutrot and Ricardo Silva and Ed Manley and {de Cothi}, Will and Saber Sami and Veronique Bohbot and Jan Wiener and Christoph Hoelscher and Ruth Dalton and Michael Hornberger and Hugo Spiers",
year = "2018",
month = sep,
day = "10",
doi = "10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009",
language = "English",
volume = "28",
pages = "2861--2866",
journal = "Current Biology",
issn = "0960-9822",
publisher = "CELL PRESS",
number = "17",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global determinants of navigation ability

AU - Coutrot, Antoine

AU - Silva, Ricardo

AU - Manley, Ed

AU - de Cothi, Will

AU - Sami, Saber

AU - Bohbot, Veronique

AU - Wiener, Jan

AU - Hoelscher, Christoph

AU - Dalton, Ruth

AU - Hornberger, Michael

AU - Spiers, Hugo

PY - 2018/9/10

Y1 - 2018/9/10

N2 - Countries vary in their geographical and cultural properties. Only a few studies have explored how such variations influence how humans navigate or reason about space. We predicted that these variations impact human cognition, resulting in an organized spatial distribution of cognition at a planetary-wide scale. To test this hypothesis we developed a mobile-app-based cognitive task, measuring non-verbal spatial navigation ability in more than 2.5 million people, sampling populations in every nation state. We focused on spatial navigation due to its universal requirement across cultures. Using a clustering approach, we find that navigation ability is clustered into five distinct, yet geographically related, groups of countries. Specifically, the economic wealth of a nation was predictive of the average navigation ability of its inhabitants, and gender inequality was predictive of the size of performance difference between males and females. Thus, cognitive abilities, at least for spatial navigation, are clustered according to economic wealth and gender inequalities globally, which has significant implications for cross-cultural studies and multi-centre clinical trials using cognitive testing.

AB - Countries vary in their geographical and cultural properties. Only a few studies have explored how such variations influence how humans navigate or reason about space. We predicted that these variations impact human cognition, resulting in an organized spatial distribution of cognition at a planetary-wide scale. To test this hypothesis we developed a mobile-app-based cognitive task, measuring non-verbal spatial navigation ability in more than 2.5 million people, sampling populations in every nation state. We focused on spatial navigation due to its universal requirement across cultures. Using a clustering approach, we find that navigation ability is clustered into five distinct, yet geographically related, groups of countries. Specifically, the economic wealth of a nation was predictive of the average navigation ability of its inhabitants, and gender inequality was predictive of the size of performance difference between males and females. Thus, cognitive abilities, at least for spatial navigation, are clustered according to economic wealth and gender inequalities globally, which has significant implications for cross-cultural studies and multi-centre clinical trials using cognitive testing.

KW - spatial cognition

KW - cross-country analysis

KW - crowdsourcing

KW - gender differences

KW - aging

U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009

DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2018.06.009

M3 - Journal article

VL - 28

SP - 2861

EP - 2866

JO - Current Biology

JF - Current Biology

SN - 0960-9822

IS - 17

ER -