The Cost of GPS

This article stemmed from a piece that I read in Harvard Magazine, talking about the hardest driving test in the world. My first question was: What is a driving test? While it is presented in a simpler form in the US, in the UK and other European countries such as France, prospective taxi drivers must have knowledge of the local geography and complete a complex test before taking the wheel. This knowledge is especially important for the taxi drivers in London. The driving test called The Knowledge of London, a 160-year-old test that takes three years to study for, is considered one of the hardest driving tests in the world. To obtain a taxi license, drivers must memorize the names and locations of 250,000 streets and landmarks. The act of becoming a taxi driver takes years of study and memorization. 

This knowledge led me to realize that I have never really prioritized knowing my local geography. Why would I when I can just open the maps app on my phone and type in where I want to go? 

I have lived in Carmel for three years, and only this past fall have I felt confident enough to drive places without putting it in my GPS first. This, while an embarrassing confession on my part, is true for people around the country. 

Two recent studies done by four Harvard researchers and by the National Library of Medicine both talk about the lack of Alzheimer's in taxi drivers. “Licensed London taxi drivers have been found to show changes in the gray matter density of their hippocampus over the course of training and decades of navigation in London (UK),” says the National Library of Medicine. 

Before GPS was invented, humans relied on two separate brain systems to learn a new environment. The first is a spatial memory strategy, like learning landmarks and creating a map in your brain. This strategy relies mostly on the hippocampus, the part of the brain correlated with memory. The second is the stimulus-response strategy, which involves learning positions to get to where you are going, i.e., turn left, then right, then spin. 

Now, GPS has ultimately changed everything. Our brains are no longer creating cognitive maps, and from this, our hippocampi are being exercised less. 

What does this mean? 

With the part of our brain dedicated to memory shrinking, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia risk is increased.  I spoke to my math tutor, Karen Warwick, who never transferred over to using a GPS as she doesn’t see the need for it, and consequently she is very knowledgeable about math and does not seem to ever struggle with her memory. While we cannot correlate the two for certain, her experience reflects what researchers have found: people who navigate on their own tend to keep a stronger sense of memory and direction. 

Still, it’s important to not jump to conclusions, even though a Harvard study found that taxi and ambulance drivers, whose jobs involve constant real-time navigation, died of Alzheimer's at lower rates than people in other jobs. This shows a link; however, it is not proof that navigation protects the brain. I want physical proof, so I found another study from McGill University, which found that people who relied heavily on GPS showed a steeper decline in spatial memory over time. 

So does this mean we have to stop using GPS and should begin buying paper maps and throwing our phones out our car windows? No, and you probably will not ever do that. GPS is useful, incredibly useful, especially when you are in an unfamiliar place or in an emergency, and paper maps are not easily accessible anymore at gas stations. The problem lies in the mundane fact that people use it for everything, even places they go to every day. Small changes can help, such as trying to get to places that are familiar without your GPS, and maybe look at the map before you leave to familiarize yourself, then believe in your memorization and yourself! Also, pay attention to landmarks along the way. You can do it!

After learning all of this, I personally have started driving around Carmel without my GPS as much as I can. I even asked my mom to explain how to get to the dog groomer, and only when I was lost (I was almost there) did I type it into my GPS. I am trying to build the same kind of mental map that London cabbies have, and maybe one day, I will get there.