The human sense of direction is a complex and fascinating topic that involves a combination of different sensory and cognitive processes. Discover the science behind how humans navigate their environments, including the role of vision, hearing, and other senses, as well as memory, attention, and spatial reasoning. Learn about the individual and cultural differences in human wayfinding, the impact of technology on our sense of direction, and the practical applications of this knowledge, from urban planning to emergency response. Explore our resources and expert insights on the human sense of direction and expand your understanding of this essential aspect of human experience.
This paper on navigation using the sun is an interesting one by Richard Massy and Karl R. Wotton. Already Tristan Gooley the natural navigator and one of our heroes walked across Crete to prove that the brain can in fact compensate for the movement of the sun during the day and keep a course by…
The new science of how we walk and why it’s good for us This is a snippet from the book, In Praise of Walking by Shane O’Mara, which examines the science behind one of the basic skills that defines us as human beings. Scientists are slowly working out how our sense of direction works. It’s…
There is a lot of work going on in the navigation field. All the researchers in this field are now clear that navigation takes place in the sub-conscious. I made the mistake of thinking that native peoples who seemed to navigate perfectly without any aids could tell me how they did it, but language is…
Humans, who are after all sophisticated animals have a very highly developed frontal cortex. This does our intellectual thinking. The right side is usually dominant. It also tends to be where humans view their world. Almost no humans feel and respond to the sub conscious. We have the concept of conscious frontal cortex operation and…
I was looking through an old copy of Classic Boat magazine (September 2004) when I discovered this article on how traditional Polynesian navigators operated. I have précised this article. For me, the importance of all this is that humans are animals but we can communicate together so that insights on how we navigated before the…
Marcus Bicknell talks here about how a sense of direction is supported by clues conscious or unconscious that hone the general direction to take. My feeling is that many of us do always know which direction to go. The instinct is then supported by clues. The clues can be conscious, like observing stars, position of…
Please enjoy this article by Marcus Bicknell who is a pilot in his own right but was also trained by his father, who flew reconnaissance missions all over the Content in Mosquitoes during the war, without any navigational aids, of course. This article is really interesting as, for me, this tells you how a good…
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
More information about our Cookie Policy