Individuals learning to drive solo before age 18 have superior spatial navigation ability compared with those who learn later

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of basic descriptive statistics for the variables included in the model (weighted wayfinding distance, age, weekly hours of video game use on all devices, weekly hours of phone use) for men and women separately, and across gender. Mean and standard deviation (SD) values are shown.

	Women	Men
n (%)	403	291
Weighted wayfinding distance	12.2 (3.7)	10.7 (3.8)
Age	25.5 (6.9)	28.5 (7.7)
Hours of phone use per week	35.0 (22.3)	25.4 (18.7)
Weekly hours of video gaming on all devices	4.3 (4.9)	9.3 (6.3)

Figure 1. Outline of the wayfinding task.

Table 2. Model output. P-values for the significant associations are highlighted in bold. ͣ the Cohen’s f2 effect size for daily travel time was calculated for the main effect of the variable as a whole rather than for each category/level of the variable.

Variable	β	95% CI	t	p	sig	f2
(Intercept)	−.12	[−.32, .08]	−1.15	.250
Age one learnt to drive	−.06	[−.14, .03]	−1.37	.172		<.01
Age one starts to drive solo	.11	[.02, .19]	2.44	.015	*	.01
Mode of thinking about space	.05	[−.12, .23]	.60	.550		<.01
Weekly hours of driving	.01	[−.04, .05]	.26	.793		<.01
Weekly hours of exercise	−.04	[−.09, .02]	−1.23	.221		<.01
Weekly hours of walking	.02	[−.03, .07]	.89	.372		<.01
Weekly biking – yes	.18	[.06, .29]	3.02	.003	**	.02
Weekly boating – yes	.09	[−.16, .33]	.68	.495		<.01
Hours of daily travel	−.03	[−.12, .06]	−.59	.554		<.01
Weekly hours of exercise over the last 6 months	.08	[−.03, .19]	1.39	.165		<.01
Average GPS reliance score	.02	[−.02, .07]	1.11	.267		<.01
Age	.12	[.07, .17]	5.14	<.001	***	.03
Gender	−.18	[−.28, −.08]	−3.50	.001	***	.06
Weekly hours of video gaming on all devices	−.11	[−.16, −.06]	−4.65	<.001	***	.03
Weekly hours of phone use	.02	[−.02, .07]	.94	.346		<.01
Highest level of education achieved	.03	[−.07, .12]	.54	.589		<.01

Figure 2. Weighted wayfinding distance in those who started to learn to drive below 18 compared with those who started to drive solo at 18 or above. VR-m = virtual reality meters. Data points represent the mean wayfinding distance across game levels across participants. Bars represent the standard error of the mean corresponding to this wayfinding distance.

Data availability statement

A dataset containing the preprocessed trajectory lengths and demographic information is available at https://osf.io/cugdw/. We also set up a portal - https://seaheroquest.alzheimersresearchuk.org/ - where researchers can invite a targeted group of participants to play SHQ and generate data about their spatial navigation capabilities. Those invited to play the game will be sent a unique participant key, generated by the SHQ system according to the criteria and requirements of a specific project decided by the experimenter. Access to the portal will be granted for noncommercial purposes. Future publications based on this dataset should add “Sea Hero Quest Project” as a coauthor.