Allocentric Navigation and Human Perception of Directions

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The text humorously discusses the challenges of navigation and highlights the exceptional allocentric navigation sense of the author's husband. It explores how humans and birds navigate, mentioning that scientists are intrigued by birds' navigation abilities. The author's husband uses cues such as shadow length and moss on trees to determine direction. Allocentric navigation involves a top-down perspective, contrasting with egocentric navigation, which is relative to oneself.

Is it better to be an egocentric navigator or an allocentric navigator? Was the New York City Department of Education wrong to ban ChatGPT? And did Mike get ripped off by Michael Jackson’s cousin?

RESOURCES

"Don’t Ban Chatbots in Classrooms — Use Them to Change How We Teach," by Angela Duckworth and Lyle Ungar (Los Angeles Times, 2023).
"How GPS Weakens Memory — and What We Can Do about It," by Mar Gonzalez-Franco, Gregory Dane Clemenson, and Amos Miller (Scientific American, 2021).
"Habitual Use of GPS Negatively Impacts Spatial Memory During Self-Guided Navigation," by Louisa Dahmani and Véronique Bohbot (Nature Scientific Reports, 2020).
"Navigational Strategy May Be More a Matter of Environment and Experience Than Gender," by Sharon A. Livingstone-Lee, Philip M. Zeman, Susan T. Gillingham, and Ronald W. Skelton (Learning and Motivation, 2014).
"Acquiring 'the Knowledge' of London's Layout Drives Structural Brain Changes," by Katherine Woollett and Eleanor Maguire (Current Biology, 2011).
"Is Google Making Us Stupid?" by Nicholas Carr (The Atlantic, 2008).

EXTRAS

"Dunder Mifflin Infinity," S4.E2 of The Office (2007).

SOURCES:

Véronique Bohbot, professor of psychiatry at McGill University.
Nicholas Carr, journalist and writer.
Winston Churchill, 20th-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Louisa Dahmani, research fellow at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Jason Duckworth, president of Arcadia Land Company and Angela's husband.
Omar Johnson, founder of ØPUS United, former C.M.O. of Beats by Dre and former V.P. of Marketing at Apple.
Eleanor Maguire, professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London.
Michael Scott, fictional character and protagonist of NBC sitcom The Office.
Socrates, ancient Greek philosopher.
Hieronimo Squarciafico, 15th-century Venetian editor.
Lyle Ungar, professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.
Katherine Woollett, clinical psychologist at the Kings College London Hospital.