Host: The Japanese Society for Cognitive Psychology
Many previous studies have measured sense of direction using self-evaluation questionnaires. Although self-evaluation questionnaires succeeded in predicting one’s wayfinding performance and training efficacy, they do not always reflect actual competency accurately. When one is not competent enough, he/she tends to overestimate his/her own competency. The present research focused on the discrepancy between one’s self-evaluation regarding sense of direction and his/her actual competency, and investigated the effect of meta-cognition on spatial cognition. We measured the sense of direction, understandability of the pathway description, and wayfinding performance of 1,000 participants, and then investigated the relationship between them. Cluster analysis showed “poor sense of direction with complete self-confidence,” who has high level of self-evaluation but low level of competency, in addition to “poor sense of direction“ and “good sense of direction” in previous researches. This suggests that there is a considerable difference between some participants' actual and perceived spatial cognitive skills.
