Question: I have a strong sense of a “dominant” direction (often, but not always, west). This direction is self-apparent in virtually every memory or mental visualization of any location I can think of. So, for example, captain’s chair on the USS enterprise “obviously” faces “east”, and the library on Myst island is obviously on the north side. I’m not going to forget which direction is down, and I’m not going to forget which direction is (usually) west.
Does anyone else here have oriented spacial memories?
There are (indigenous) languages/cultures which give directions in absolute (compass) terms instead of our usual left/right/front/back terms. I’d guess that implies that memory gets tagged with that a lot.
I’d also guess that some people are more naturally predisposed to deal with that. Like you.
Neat-o. I don’t have any particularly strong sense of directions in my memories but I always know where I am in relation to other places I know. It will occasionally bother me when I walk into a maze-like building and lose my orientation. But I usually re-orientate when I leave such a building.
I don’t have a very good “native” sense of direction, and there are lots of times I find I’ve gone to two different places from my home or work often and think I know where they are, but then get surprised when they’re very nearby each other.
With cognitive effort, I can usually get directions right, but it’s based on landmarks and reasoning rather than any type-1 sense.
I have been building a streetmap in my head for the past 15+ years of my life. at some point (before smart-maps) I realised it would be good to have a sense of location. from then on I started “building” the map in my head of where it “feels” like everything is.
Now days when I travel (drive) somewhere I recognise the main arterial roads of my city; and the common traffic conditions of them. I usually set a smart-map to outsource estimating my time of arrival, but I can also look at a map and recognise the nearness of a new place to a place I have been to previously and guide myself via “known routes”
Question: I have a strong sense of a “dominant” direction (often, but not always, west). This direction is self-apparent in virtually every memory or mental visualization of any location I can think of. So, for example, captain’s chair on the USS enterprise “obviously” faces “east”, and the library on Myst island is obviously on the north side. I’m not going to forget which direction is down, and I’m not going to forget which direction is (usually) west.
Does anyone else here have oriented spacial memories?
There are (indigenous) languages/cultures which give directions in absolute (compass) terms instead of our usual left/right/front/back terms. I’d guess that implies that memory gets tagged with that a lot. I’d also guess that some people are more naturally predisposed to deal with that. Like you.
Neat-o. I don’t have any particularly strong sense of directions in my memories but I always know where I am in relation to other places I know. It will occasionally bother me when I walk into a maze-like building and lose my orientation. But I usually re-orientate when I leave such a building.
I wonder if this is a branch of synaesthesia?
Neat-o for both of you!
I don’t have a very good “native” sense of direction, and there are lots of times I find I’ve gone to two different places from my home or work often and think I know where they are, but then get surprised when they’re very nearby each other.
With cognitive effort, I can usually get directions right, but it’s based on landmarks and reasoning rather than any type-1 sense.
I have been building a streetmap in my head for the past 15+ years of my life. at some point (before smart-maps) I realised it would be good to have a sense of location. from then on I started “building” the map in my head of where it “feels” like everything is.
Now days when I travel (drive) somewhere I recognise the main arterial roads of my city; and the common traffic conditions of them. I usually set a smart-map to outsource estimating my time of arrival, but I can also look at a map and recognise the nearness of a new place to a place I have been to previously and guide myself via “known routes”