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My mental visualization process for navigation is almost non-existent

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pelecanus87

Well-Known Member
I once asked a friend who is good at navigation to describe what it's like for him (mentally, in his own mind) when he needs to envision a given area for the purpose of navigation. He described that he can easily visualize a sort of bird's eye, overhead view of a given area.

I simply cannot do this. Mentally, I have a very blurry and incomplete vision of where, for example, one road will intersect with another given road. I can do this to a small extent, but I get a feeling of being overwhelmed and confused if there are too many steps involved or if it's far away.

Can anyone here relate to this specific thing?
 
It sounds like you have the same type of problem as me. I had a horrible time learning to drive in towns because I couldn't find the intersections and left turns were impossible because I'd have to connect across the empty abyss of an intersection. I was 35 when that started not be so hard. The things I was doing different at the time was trying to learn to play violin( no idea if that helped) and looking at the satellite views of streets. And of course lots of practice including 4:00 am driving. At that hour you can go as slow as you need. Oh, and the two lane left turn intersections at that hour are really helpful because they are dotted and you can see the lanes as they connect in the intersection. I still go a bit slower than average and get honked at but now I can drive in St. Louis (after extensive street-view and satellite viewing of the route). Well, the edge of St. Louis mostly. I try to just get to Shrewsbury and get on the MetroLink but I have managed to get to Barnes hospital several times. Trains are much better than driving when you can find one. Wish there were trains in my town.
 
The funny thing is I used to think I had a good sense of direction.

I've since found out that I don't have one at all.

I've given up now, and I just use sat nav, my wife or the force to find my way around.
 
Regarding the top down view;

I think I can do this in some cases, maybe on a large scale area, like motorways and cities. When environments are tighter like a shopping mall I have no idea what it looks like from above, and my memory and visualisation works on pictures, so I can only relate to what ever is in direct line of sight from the picture I replay.

I got lost at the weekend in a mall I "know" very well. I wanted to get to a shop so I visualise the shop and try to connect other pictures until I get to me.

Then I turn the wrong way at the first junction.
 
I have always had the WORST sense of direction ever. I think it was because I was so locked into my head and thinking processes that everything external seemed unimportant and just a petty inconvenience to endure, so I would start down in the direction of my intended destination then slip back into my thinking and emerge from thought to find I was not where I intended to be , and repeat this popping in and out of thought until I had somehow managed to get where I was going. That's why I love to take the same route places every time.
 
I have a terrible sense of direction, especially with long, straight roads where I have to remember the order of locations/stores. Once, I was in the town in which I grew up with my husband and we were going to a restaurant, and I was haphazardly giving him directions. For a second, I thought the restaurant was gone :D because I couldn't remember where it was....
 
I have a good sense of direction in the streets, possibly because I spend a lot of time looking at my surroundings? Not sure why. I tend to get lost in buildings though. Drop me in a strange city and get me drunk and I'll find my way back to the hotel without any problems, but put me to work in a new building and I'll still knock on the wrong door weeks after I've started.
 
This is of interest to me because I have trouble with face blindness and I get lost even going places I know. I was told both these troubles are from the same area of hte brain called the fusiform gyrus . It is very cool brain part. Look that up and you can see! I still wonder why it effects both these things.

When I had my TBI those two things were so bad that I could not find my way around in my own town and at church, people I knew , were coming up and saying hi and I had no idea who they were.

I am better with that now unless it is an aquiantance or someone who works at A but I see them at B. At least I may know them now but not know where.

As to getting lost? No hope. And I agree. I cannot get it in my mind any better. I once drove around an 8 mile area, around and around in circles, lost, till I blew out like 1/2 tank of gas!!!! I ended up in a parking lot crying and no way to get home. Brother rescued me.

I hope I am beyond that but I don't even have a gps. Mapquest sent me wrong a lot, too!! >:-( Grrrrrrrr

I hope to get a GPS soon, though, when I can afford one. I don't have a smart phone.

Here is a link to the fusiform and another which suggest that if there is an overlap, it is because there is damage, not development faceblindness.

Fusiform gyrus - Wikipedia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26874939
 
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Full Steam said:
Regarding the top down view;

I think I can do this in some cases, maybe on a large scale area, like motorways and cities. When environments are tighter like a shopping mall I have no idea what it looks like from above, and my memory and visualisation works on pictures, so I can only relate to what ever is in direct line of sight from the picture I replay.

I got lost at the weekend in a mall I "know" very well. I wanted to get to a shop so I visualise the shop and try to connect other pictures until I get to me.

Then I turn the wrong way at the first junction.
Click to expand...
I also frequently internalize visualize information that just turns out to be wrong. For example, in my mind, a given road intersects with another after a particular landmark. But when I'm driving on said road, I find that I've jumbled things up and my conception of the layout of the road was just wrong. I suppose this could happen to anyone, but it happens often with me.
 
OkRad said:
I hope to get a GPS soon, though, when I can afford one. I don't have a smart phone.

Here is a link to the fusiform and another which suggest that if there is an overlap, it is because there is damage, not development faceblindness.

Fusiform gyrus - Wikipedia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26874939
Click to expand...

If it a choice between the two, I'd get a smartphone. Google maps is free and updated more than most GPS, and holds info on business so you can navigate to them.
 
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