>http://www.allbusiness.com/science-technology/behavior-cognition-psychology/13544176-1.html
Interesting article. I like how he mentioned looking back
at landmarks to see what they look like from different
perspectives. That's particularly important in caves, since passages
and junctions often look very different on the way out compared to
the way in. That's something we always point out to new cavers.
I personally never use GPS when I am hiking. I have a very
good mental map of everywhere I walk, and can easily devise
cross-country routes to get from one extreme point to another, even
though I have never seen the intervening territory. I only use a GPS
to record a specific location like a cave entrance for entry into a
data base so others can record it and find it. If I end up
backtracking for whatever reason, I am amazed at how often I go back
over exactly the same terrain, passing specific rocks, trees, etc.
without even trying I have noticed that this ability is far from
universal, however. Several times I have been hiking with people and
suggested cutting overland to get back at the end of the day, and had
them be totally bewildered and genuinely concerned that we would get
lost, even though it seemed totally obvious to me that going north,
say, would get us back to where we needed to be. I'd hate to see
this sort of seat-of-the-pants navigation be supplanted by technology
like GPS, which will not work in some environments and not
underground in any event.
Possibly the best example of this sort of navigation I know
of was mentioned recently by Nancy Weaver. The Mexican guy who led
us to a big pit-like karst feature (the previously known Caldera) in
the El Abra in 1986 told us after the fact that he had been there
only once previously 10 years earlier. That was a multi-hour hike
over seemingly featureless terrain. Even I don't see how he did it.
Mark Minton
At 03:05 PM 12/16/2009, mark.al...@l-3com.com wrote:
Interesting article that was in the hard copy of the Dallas Morning
News this past Sunday.
Explains in great detail as to how over-reliance on GPS devices
can/will cause of the loss of spatial thought, which is controlled
by the hippocampus in our brains.
http://www.allbusiness.com/science-technology/behavior-cognition-psychology/13544176-1.html
Mark (still gets lost the old fashioned way)
You may reply to mmin...@caver.net
Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org
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