> How do you look at directions when you're
> driving or walking around? I heard once that
> there are two basic ways of doing it, and
> people who naturally do it one way have
> immense difficulty understanding directions
> given by somebody who does it the other way.
> These are:
>
> 1) You pay little attention to landmarks but
> think of the route in terms of directional
> turns. You would be more comfortable if given
> directions such as "go straight ahead for a
> block, then turn left, then turn right, then
> go straight ahead again, then turn right"
> or "go north for a block, then turn west, then
> turn north, then keep going north, then go
> east."

Ugh. Hard enough that I sometimes get my left and right confused when I'm stressed out. And don't even make me try to figure out which compass direction is which. :)

> 2) You do it mostly by remembering visual
> references. You would be more comfortable with
> directions such as "go to the library, then
> turn left, then turn again after the four big
> trees, then keep going until you see a yellow
> house, then turn right where the hedge
> finishes." Even these instructions are easier
> to follow if you have been there before and
> can picture the route in your head.

Now *that's* me. I can remember, for instance, how to get to university from home by way of various gas stations, stores, signs and such. But take away those landmarks and I'll get confused. And don't even make me try to do it from the other direction!

Naturally, the places where I get most confused are where there *are* no clear defining features-- for instance, a neighborhood with houses that look very similar to one another, or an area where there's little to be found besides trees and country roads.

> ... I have to *imagine* that route visually.
> Once I have the route in my mind, I can then
> drive directly there without looking at the
> map again or even thinking about it, even if
> it's an all-day drive with lots of complicated
> bits. If the route takes me outside areas I am
> visually familiar with, I will have to stop
> and consult the map again, pick a visual
> landmark to look for, such as names on street
> signs, and then proceed from one new landmark > to the next until I get where I'm going.

> If somebody said, halfway there, "Hey, it'll
> be quicker if you take Blah Street and then go
> along Thing Street", I would get instantly and
> totally confused, because I already *had* this
> complete visual track laid out in my mind. The
> only way I could rapidly change to a different
> route would be if I already had a visual track
> for at least part of that new route as well.
> If it involved roads I'd never been down
> before, that would be it. Lost.

Yes! That's what always strikes me when my dad's driving: often he'll go by way of roads I've never even *seen*, and usually has a general idea of where he's going to end up. I couldn't even make the slightest guess, on the other hand.

Oh, and another thing: Sometimes I get routes confused because they look similar. For instance, one way of getting back to campus involves a merge to the left; another involves a merge to the right. I can never remember which road merges which way. They look exactly the same (at least to me) up to the point where they merge.

-- codeman"oh, yes, and I also suck at reading maps, did I mention that?"38