Being Where? Putting Memory, Technology, and Wayfinding Together Again
Review of Philosophy and Psychology March 28, 2026 Mcarthur Mingon, Alexander James Gillett, John Sutton
Negative assessments of GPS as causing 'de-skilling' and disrupting spatial memory are widespread, but a broader perspective shows human spatial memory has always been incomplete and dependent on culture, social practices, and environment. GPS effects are better understood as reconfigurations of wayfinding ecologies—distributed cognitive systems used for navigation. Negative effects are not inevitable but emerge from longer historical processes of cognitive-technological coevolution. Individual and group variability in spatial cognition and technology use matters: some users become passive, while others develop expert strategies of skillful incorporation. The key is not whether GPS is used, but how, and opportunities exist for deliberate ecological design to shape future wayfinding ecologies.