Freedom Lawyers of America

by Sarah Lonsdale, Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id=390313AD-F327-42CF-A407-7D9EF2EE4B47

Map reading is probably the main source of conflict between couples while
driving. But the assertion that women are incapable of reading a map
correctly has, unfortunately for the female sex, been backed up by several
studies on spatial ability.

Men have used this convenient theory of the female lack of spatial judgment
to criticize anything from a woman's ability to reverse into a parking
space, to berating her when she fails to differentiate north from south
while reading a map.

But now, it seems, the idea that women are wandering around in a kind of
spatial vacuum -- where successful navigation is more down to luck than
planning -- is only half the story.

While it is true that men find the instructions on a map easier to follow,
women do far better when following a verbal set of directions, using
landmarks to help them.

Psychologist Deborah Saucier, of the University of Saskatchewan, decided to
re-examine the assumption that men are superior to women in their ability
to navigate.

"Research into the field of spatial ability time and again concludes that
men are superior," she says.
"You get the impression that, for most of the time, women are wandering
around lost, which is clearly not the case."

Saucier set up a simple experiment using male and female students,
assigning them two different ways of getting from one point to another. One
set of directions followed the classic Euclidian method employed by map
designers, based on compass directions and distances, such as "walk north
for 400 metres, then turn east."

The second set used landmarks, such as "carry on until you get to the large
oak tree, then turn left and walk until you get to a house with a yellow door."

Having assigned men and women to both sets of instructions, she set the
timer and waited at the destination. Her results will vindicate women who
say that while they may not be able to read maps as well as men, they can
find their way using landmarks.