Muffato Veronica, Miola Laura, Pazzaglia Francesca, Meneghetti Chiara
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Inter-University Research Center in Environmental Psychology (CIRPA), Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 8;14:1240873. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1240873. eCollection 2023.
Self-evaluations about orientation and navigation in the environment contribute to individual differences in spatial cognition. Evidence suggests that they may change, even slightly, with the progression of adulthood. It is necessary to improve the framing of environment-related subjective self-evaluations in adulthood and aging by examining how they change and the factors related to them. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the developmental trajectories of sense of direction, spatial anxiety, and attitude in exploring place across the adult lifespan while also considering gender and education.
A sample of 1,946 participants (1,068 women), aged 18-87 years, completed the sense of direction and spatial representation, spatial anxiety, and attitude in exploring scales.
The regression models showed a linear increase in sense of direction with age, stable spatial anxiety until age 66 years when anxiety began increasing, and a stable attitude in exploring with a deflection by age 71 years. Gender played a role in all three types of self-evaluations, with men reporting higher ratings in sense of direction and attitude toward exploring (especially in older men), and lower levels of spatial anxiety than women did. Education also played a role, with higher education years associated with lower ratings in spatial anxiety and a higher sense of direction, nullifying gender differences in the latter.
These results offer, in the spatial cognition framework, a better understanding of how specific environment-related self-evaluations develop with age and related factors, such as education. This underscores the importance of enhancing them, particularly in women and older adults.
对环境中定向和导航的自我评估会导致空间认知的个体差异。有证据表明，随着成年期的发展，这些评估可能会发生变化，即使是轻微的变化。有必要通过研究环境相关主观自我评估如何变化以及与之相关的因素，来完善成年期和老年期与环境相关的主观自我评估框架。因此，本研究旨在考察成年期各阶段方向感、空间焦虑和探索场所态度的发展轨迹，同时考虑性别和教育因素。
1946名年龄在18至87岁之间的参与者（1068名女性）完成了方向感和空间表征、空间焦虑以及探索量表中的态度测量。
回归模型显示，方向感随年龄呈线性增长，空间焦虑在66岁之前保持稳定，之后开始增加，探索态度在71岁之前保持稳定，之后出现偏差。性别在所有三种自我评估类型中都起到了作用，男性在方向感和探索态度方面的得分更高（尤其是老年男性），且空间焦虑水平低于女性。教育也起到了作用，受教育年限越长，空间焦虑得分越低，方向感越强，这消除了后者的性别差异。
这些结果在空间认知框架内，有助于更好地理解特定环境相关的自我评估如何随年龄和教育等相关因素发展。这凸显了加强这些评估的重要性，尤其是在女性和老年人中。
