Not all anxious individuals get lost: Trait anxiety and mental rotation ability interact to explain performance in map-based route learning in men

Thoresen, John C; Francelet, Rebecca; Cöltekin, Arzu; Richter, Kai-Florian; Fabrikant, Sara I; Sandi, Carmen

doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2016.04.008

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Thoresen, J. C., Francelet, R., Cöltekin, A., Richter, K.-F., Fabrikant, S. I., & Sandi, C. (2016). Not all anxious individuals get lost: Trait anxiety and mental rotation ability interact to explain performance in map-based route learning in men. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 132, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlm.2016.04.008

Abstract

Navigation through an environment is a fundamental human activity. Although group differences in navigational ability are documented (e.g., gender), little is known about traits that predict these abilities. Apart from a well-established link between mental rotational abilities and navigational learning abilities, recent studies point to an influence of trait anxiety on the formation of internal cognitive spatial repre- sentations. However, it is unknown whether trait anxiety affects the processing of information obtained through exte