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Global determinants of navigation ability

A. Coutrot, R. Silva, E. Manley, W. de Cothi, S. Sami, V. D. Bohbot, J. M. Wiener, C. Hölscher, R.C. Dalton, M. Hornberger, H. J. Spiers
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/188870
A. Coutrot
1Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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R. Silva
2Department of Statistical Science and CSML, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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E. Manley
3Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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W. de Cothi
1Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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S. Sami
4Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
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V. D. Bohbot
5Douglas Mental Health University Institute, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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J. M. Wiener
6Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom.
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C. Hölscher
7ETH Zürich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland.
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R.C. Dalton
8Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.
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M. Hornberger
4Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
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H. J. Spiers
1Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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Summary

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 [1–7]. 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.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted January 21, 2018.
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Global determinants of navigation ability
A. Coutrot, R. Silva, E. Manley, W. de Cothi, S. Sami, V. D. Bohbot, J. M. Wiener, C. Hölscher, R.C. Dalton, M. Hornberger, H. J. Spiers
bioRxiv 188870; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/188870
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Global determinants of navigation ability
A. Coutrot, R. Silva, E. Manley, W. de Cothi, S. Sami, V. D. Bohbot, J. M. Wiener, C. Hölscher, R.C. Dalton, M. Hornberger, H. J. Spiers
bioRxiv 188870; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/188870

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