Online mobile map effect: how smartphone map use impairs spatial memory

ABSTRACT This article examined people’s spatial memory and navigation performance when they learned an environmental route using a smartphone map and a paper map. Our results showed that the use of a smartphone map impaired spatial learning and knowledge acquisition. Specifically, participants learned a route less accurately when they used a smartphone map than when using a paper map, revealed by a worse route retracing performance. Although navigation accuracy decreased for the second, unaided walk after the first walk aided with a smartphone map, participants’ self-evaluation in terms of state anxiety and confidence ratings did not show a statistically significant difference. This suggests that smartphone map users did not perceive the memory impairment caused by the smartphone map use.