Age and Self-Expansion Behaviors Correlate with Spatial Navigation in Healthy Adults

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Development

Background:

• Spatial navigation is crucial for daily functioning and can decline with age.
• Self-expansion, the motivation for personal growth through novel experiences, is a key psychological drive.
• Understanding the interplay between aging, self-expansion, and navigation is vital for cognitive health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between self-expansion, age, and spatial navigation abilities.
• To explore how internal motivation, specifically self-expansion, influences navigation performance across different tasks.
• To identify potential interventions for age-related navigation decline.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of younger adults (YAs) and older adults (OAs) completed navigation tasks and psychological scales.
• Measures included the Self-Expansion Preference Scale (SEPS), Wayfinding Questionnaire (WQ), Virtual Supermarket Task, Virtual Morris Water Maze (vMWM), and Floor Maze Task (FMT).
• Statistical analyses included Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman correlations to compare groups and assess relationships.

Main Results:

• Younger adults demonstrated significantly faster completion times in the vMWM compared to older adults.
• Individuals with higher self-expansion tendencies showed improved recall in the vMWM, irrespective of age.
• In younger adults, greater self-expansion correlated with reduced spatial anxiety and faster performance on the FMT.

Conclusions:

• Self-expansion is associated with enhanced spatial navigation performance across different age groups.
• The findings suggest that fostering self-expansion may be a viable strategy to improve navigation skills, particularly in aging populations.
• Further research is warranted to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this association and develop targeted interventions.