What if you're directionally challenged?

lambdaloop · on Oct 7, 2020

I was worried about this, as I don't have a great knack for directions. However, I found that binding items to locations on the street actually helped me remember the layout of the streets as well.

Also, you don't need to use a whole street, you can encode a lot in just a room or two!

-- Relatedly, I know some people say that they don't have visual imagery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia . I'm really curious how navigating spaces works for them. Do they have a problem with directions? Could they use memory spaces, but without visual imagery?

zwayhowder · on Oct 7, 2020

So I am pretty high on the aphantastic scale (It sounds better when I conjugate it like that).

I don't have a car license, despite growing up driving vehicles on farms and years of trying to get my car license, I can't comfortable drive a car because I cannot hold in my head the physical size and shape of the car. I have a full motorcycle licence and no problem with a bike, but as soon as I step up to a car I just can't estimate distances or space. (This cost a lot of fence posts on farms and could be deadly on a highway).

Navigation I'm mostly fine, because I can remember lists reasonably well. To get from my house to my sisters is left, left, right, left (straight for 30km), right, left, right, left. Do I turn the final right at the 4th or 5th street down the road? I never remember until I'm in the intersection and recognise it.

I've tried a memory palace, and it only works for me with a space I know really well and a limited range. For example the 10 rooms of my house I can use, I've lived here for 15 years. I couldn't use different parts of the rooms because I just can't visualise them. But since I can generally remember short lists pretty easily I don't find a 10 room memory palace helpful.

Lastly I, like most people I suspect, remember songs and rhyme better. Want to know the periodic table? I can sing it at you (Thanks ASAPScience).

The worst part about aphantasia is trying to explain it to someone who hasn't got it. I can recognise my favourite places instantly in a picture, but ask me to describe them and be preparted for a cubist impression. Heaven help anyone who is relying on me to complete a police identikit...