Neighborhood disorder impacts cognitive processing during navigation on a novel virtual reality paradigm

Living in neighborhoods characterized by physical and social disorder (e.g., litter, abandoned buildings, crime) is associated with poorer cognitive functioning. However, much of this work relies on decontextualized laboratory tasks, limiting insight into how everyday environmental experiences shape day-to-day cognitive functioning. Here, we introduce the Neighborhood Errand Task (NET), a novel navigation paradigm designed to approximate memory and information processing during wayfinding within disordered neighborhood contexts. Participants first learned a route through map study and guided practice, then completed navigation trials requiring choices between learned-familiar routes and novel-shortcut routes. Neighborhood disorder was experimentally manipulated via environmental cues and intermittent surprise "robbery" events. A diverse sample of U.S. adults (N = 100) completed the NET alongside self-reports of perceived neighborhood disorder and risky/impulsive behavior. Greater perceived neighborhood disorder was associated with poorer wayfinding in the learned route and shortcut trials, which may reflect differences in information processing, caution, strategy selection, or specific memory processes. Furthermore, inefficient navigation amplified the relationship between perceived neighborhood disorder and engagement in risky/impulsive behavior, suggesting that cognitive inefficiencies and environmental perceptions heighten vulnerability to behavioral dysregulation. By embedding cognition in a realistic, navigable context, the NET highlights how environmental adversity may shape adaptations relevant to survival.