Spatial abilities and wayfinding inclinations in orienteering: Evidence from elite and expert athletes

Orienteering is a sport based on spatial navigation, the ability to move and reach destinations. Elite athletes, i.e., those competing at the highest level of competition, display distinctive cognitive abilities. However, the practice of this sport at different levels of competition in relation to spatial cognitive abilities and everyday navigation inclinations has not been examined extensively. The current study examines the relationship between different degrees of orienteering practice and a variety of cognitive spatial abilities and inclinations. A total of 122 participants (16-45 years) took part: 32 elites (those competing at national and internation levels), 45 experts (those competing at amateur level) with a similar number of years of experience (≈15) and competitions per year (≈ 27) and 45 non-athletes. Participants completed a series of spatial tasks assessing intrinsic (object-to-object relation based) and extrinsic (subject-to-object relation based), dynamic and static abilities, and everyday navigation strategy questionnaires. The results showed that both elite and experts orienteers performed better in spatial extrinsic tasks, while only elite performed better in spatial intrinsic tasks compared to non-athletes. Both elite and experts had higher everyday navigation inclinations. In the elite group, better championship ranking was associated with lower self-reported spatial anxiety. Overall, these findings support the association between orienteering, a spatial navigation practice, with spatial cognitive abilities and everyday navigation inclinations, showing that for elites these are more object-to-object based.