do you get lost easily?

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Yes, but strangely enough, I've been contemplating traveling all alone by myself for sometime now, it would 99% be done by public transportation too since I don't drive. This would be very challenging and risky but It's definitely on my "Bucket list"

Last edited by OhioStateDolphins on 08 Feb 2013, 7:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pretty bad. but better at the face matching than i thought. i felt like i was guessing. i relate to what another poster said about going somewhere and "blacking out" just like shutting off the brain until you get there. not even knowing how you got there, but there you are.

Object Recognition 100% Correct
Identity Recognition 90% Correct
Expression Recognition 100% Correct
Landmark Recognition 90% Correct
Heading Orientation 80% Correct
Sequence Matching 90% Correct
Path Integration 30% Correct
Cognitive Map Test V1 completed in 14 trials
Cognitive Map Test V1 part 2 70% Correct

no, not really, sometimes i get confused but recover, i have a fantastic photographic memory so i always remember where ive been

This usually happens to me, i hate oral directions, but usually if im on my own i never get lost

I had to abort the mapping test as it was jerky and made me feel dizzy and confused - I have never been good at finding my way in virtual environments, however this thankfully does not translate into real life problems - in real life I am very quick at "just knowing" (I sort of feel it with my body in which direction something is) where things are in a new city or town after walking around for a while.

Object Recognition 100% Correct
Identity Recognition 50% Correct
Expression Recognition 50% Correct
Landmark Recognition 90% Correct
Heading Orientation 70% Correct
Sequence Matching 100% Correct
Path Integration 60% Correct

yes I do.

Object Recognition 100% Correct
Identity Recognition 100% Correct (I looked at the eyebrows and remembered them, and it worked!)
Expression Recognition 100% Correct (I found this one very stressful! It was like a sea of faces approaching me)
Landmark Recognition 80% Correct (My attention to detail gave me a higher score than I would otherwise have got)
Heading Orientation 60% Correct (this was so hard, and some were lucky guesses)
Sequence Matching 60% Correct
Path Integration 50% Correct

OMG couldn't do the cognitive map thing at the end, I literally couldn't do any more after clicking the first right one, I got them so wrong it wouldn't let me go on.

I am good at map reading, as long as I have the map facing the actual way of the route, otherwise I can't do it.

I have a big problem recognising routes going in the opposite direction, e.g. if I drove somewhere on the return journey it would look massively different and I would struggle to understand if I was going the right way.

The last two I got a bit bored and zoned out so I had to guess a couple.

Last edited by whirlingmind on 10 Feb 2013, 7:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Whirlingmind I used a trick in the heading orientation, you only need to memorise one matching object & orientation, as there are always 2 of one direction and one of the other. So as long as you memorise the object that was in the minority you can always answer the question without having to memorise 3 pairings.

Ah, that's interesting. You see tests can be fooled can't they, they are not really an accurate measure. I mean I scored top marks on the facial expressions but they were all really obvious ones and I did guess maybe 2 or 3 anyway. IRL it's nowhere near so clear cut, so they are never a true representation on tests - people don't go round making such exaggerated expressions. Although I really am crap at directions so my 'generous' score of 60% was probably accurate! With the identity recognition, focusing on the eyebrows made it so easy it was unbelievable because they mostly had really different eyebrows so I didn't even need to look at the rest of the faces for most of it.

The later tests were way too slow and boring for me. I quit after path integration, but I feel like I might have done poorly simply because I didn't want to pay attention to it anymore.
I don't think I have issues with direction though, at least not compared to my friends. They always seem to need a gps for places that they've been to several times, and I'll often show them a shorter way that I already knew by heart.
I do sometimes get a bit lost in places that I've never been to before, even with directions but I think that's normal. Usually i just end up going past a point that I was supposed to turn at, and have to find my way back.

I have no sense of direction... I don't even know the streets around my house.

I have a very good sense of direction. I can read maps, I write down the directions when I go to new places, I prefer to look it up on google maps to see the view so I know what to expect. That way I won't get anxious and have anxiety.

My results:



Seems allright to me, since I have a very poor sense of direction (I don't know what would I do without a GPS). My husband is even worse, he used to drive right in front of our house without noticing several times.

I'm really impressed because some of you seem to be good at identity and expression recognition even if you are Aspies!

A person with a bad sense of direction = topographagnosia I guess this could be my first label if I pushed to get one. How reliable is this test, btw? The animations were long and boring, it was difficult to stay interested!

Well, as Noetic pointed out, at least some of the animations were too simple and predictable, something real-life situations tend not to be.

A huge difference, to my mind, is that in reality one of the main reasons I get lost is my tendency to mix up left and right when I'm moving about. Sitting still in front of a screen, watching animations is a very different perceptual experience from walking around a complex environment. There's something about having to control the movements and position of my body, and processing constantly changing visual input at the same time, that is very challenging to my brain. I can focus on one or the other, but doing both is hard. I'm guessing my bad proprioception has something to do with that; it requires a lot of brainpower to steer this ugly bag of mostly water around the world . Whenever I get lost I have to stop moving and focus on the visual until I get my bearings again. Sometimes I panic and try to find my way by running around every which way, but then I just get even more lost.

Object Recognition: 100%
Identity Recognition: 90%
Expression Recognition: 100%
Landmark Recognition: 90%
Heading Orientation: 20%
Sequence Matching: 80%
Path Integration: 80%
Cognitive Map Formation: Solved in 4 trials.
Cognitive Map Use: 70% (I originally thought that I did worse on this. I surprized myself.)

I guess that the main reason that I have trouble finding my way around big buildings without a guide is because of orientation. I know or a fact that it is also because of a fear of being alone.