Navigational metacognition in aging: Encoding strategies and spatial representation

Navigation difficulties in older adults are well-documented and declining wayfinding abilities may serve as an early indicator of cognitive impairment. Such deficits can reduce mobility, restrict life space, and predict both nursing home admission and mortality. A major factor underlying this performance decline is the tendency for some older adults to rely on egocentric (self-referential) navigation strategies rather than allocentric (external) spatial representations. However, it is unclear whether this reflects reduced ability to engage in allocentric processing or an avoidance of allocentric strategies for other reasons. Metacognitive monitoring plays a central role in strategy selection, yet its influence on navigation remains underexplored. While older adults can effectively assess their memory performance in associative memory tasks, evidence is less clear for their ability to monitor visuospatial memory. Low confidence in memory abilities has been shown to lead older adults to use less cognitively demanding strategies, which may parallel their preference for egocentric navigation. Navigation research has uncovered strategy clusters: some individuals integrate spatial information into a cognitive survey representation, others tend to default to egocentric navigation, and some struggle with all strategies. Older adults may cautiously adhere to the safer, known route following costly mistakes: that this may be the less cognitively demanding strategy does not show lesser cognitive abilities. This review examines metacognition in navigation in older adults, drawing from non-navigation findings, addresses the role of metacognitive monitoring in navigation strategy selection, and explores the implications for interventions to improve spatial cognition in aging.