Spatial navigation strategy in older adults: Preference or ability?

Spatial navigation strategies change in aging. Whereas younger adults use more shortcuts (place-based strategies), older adults use more familiar routes (response-based strategies). Does this bias in older adults reflect a preference for familiar routes or deficits in the ability to take shortcuts? We tested this question by providing an instructions-based intervention in which participants were told to take shortcuts rather than follow a learned route. We predicted that when instructed to do so, participants would increase shortcut taking overall, but older adults to a lesser extent than younger adults, supporting the notion that preference, rather than an inability to use place-based strategies, underlies the predilection for response-based strategies in older age. Younger (n = 64) and older (n = 65) adults completed two sessions of a desktop virtual navigation strategy task in which they could navigate to goal locations following a familiar route or taking a novel shortcut. In the first session, all participants received the instruction to navigate to goal locations. In the second session, half received the same instruction as before and the other half was instructed to take shortcuts. We computed participants’ tendency toward place- or response-based strategies in each session. We replicated the finding that younger adults took more shortcuts when instructed; however, counter to our prediction, the instruction manipulation had no effect in older adults. These findings suggest that navigation strategy in younger adults is flexible and may reflect preference whereas older adults more rigidly adhere to familiar routes, implying impaired or degraded survey knowledge.