About us
About us: decoding spatial cognition from the heart of Rome
What spatial cognition means in our work
Spatial cognition is the group of abilities that let a person perceive, remember and use information about space: recognising a landmark, recalling a sequence of turns, building a map-like overview of a neighbourhood, or imagining a route before setting off. Our group studies these abilities in healthy people of all ages and in people for whom orientation is difficult. The short answer to "what do you do?" is this: we measure how people find their way, we look for the factors that make that easier or harder, and we design tools to assess and train orientation.
We are based at Sapienza University of Rome, a city that is itself a test environment: ancient street plans, monuments used as reference points for two thousand years, and a layout where modern roads cross Roman ones.
The team in numbers
- researchers listed on our People page, from PhD students to the Principal Investigator
- 6
- researchers listed on our People page, from PhD students to the Principal Investigator
- young Italian adults assessed in our population study on developmental topographical disorientation
- 1,698
- young Italian adults assessed in our population study on developmental topographical disorientation
- of that sample met criteria for developmental topographical disorientation
- ≈ 3%
- of that sample met criteria for developmental topographical disorientation
- settings we test in: small-scale (tabletop) and large-scale (room-sized or real environments)
- 2
- settings we test in: small-scale (tabletop) and large-scale (room-sized or real environments)
Source for the population figures: Piccardi et al. (2022), "Where am I?", PLOS ONE 17(7): e0271334 — read the open-access article.
Internal factors: the compass inside each of us
Internal factors include individual and gender differences, personality traits, cognitive styles (our predisposition to notice certain elements of the environment rather than others), navigational strategies, familiarity with the environment, and professional, sporting or life experience.
External factors: landmarks, scale and complex cities like ancient Rome
External factors concern the characteristics of the environment: its complexity, the presence of natural or man-made distant reference points, the accessibility of landmarks and the size of the space itself. We examine how these factors shape the mental representation of the environment, learning and recall of environmental information, and executive aspects such as travel planning, problem solving and decision making. In recent years we have also investigated how positive and negative emotions influence spatial orientation and the formation of the cognitive map.
Clinical research: from spatial disorientation to successful ageing
We investigate spatial orientation and its disorders in clinical populations, including patients with acquired focal brain lesions or cognitive decline, as well as developmental topographical disorientation. Special emphasis is placed on tools for early diagnosis, rehabilitative treatments and training programmes that develop or maintain spatial cognition — a crucial resource for successful ageing and autonomy in daily life.
Beyond navigation: our researchers' wider interests
Although spatial cognition is our core topic, lab members have developed independent research interests and connected them with this main theme. To learn more, visit the individual profiles.
How we study spatial cognition: methods compared
No single test captures orientation. We combine tasks that differ in scale, in how close they are to daily life, and in how much time they take. The table summarises the main families of tools and what each one can and cannot tell us.
| Method | Space tested | What it measures | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corsi Block-Tapping Test | Small-scale | Visuo-spatial short-term memory | Does not involve moving through space |
| Walking Corsi Test | Large-scale room | Topographic memory while walking | Requires a dedicated test room |
| Mental rotation and imagery tasks | Small-scale | Ability to transform spatial images | Only partly predicts real navigation |
| Self-report questionnaires | Everyday life | Perceived sense of direction, spatial anxiety | Depends on self-perception |
| Virtual and real route learning | Large-scale | Route and survey knowledge, shortcuts | Longer sessions; virtual tasks lack body cues |
Healthy navigation versus disorientation: a quick comparison
| Typical orientation | Acquired disorientation | Developmental topographical disorientation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onset | — | After brain lesion or cognitive decline | Present since childhood |
| Brain damage | No | Yes | No known lesion |
| Familiar routes | Learned and flexible | Often lost | Learned slowly; detours cause getting lost |
| First descriptions | — | Long clinical history | Iaria et al. 2009 (Canada); Bianchini et al. 2010 (Italy) |
For a full description in Italian, see our page on disorientamento topografico evolutivo.
Deep dives: questions we are often asked
Is a poor sense of direction the same as a disorder?
No. Orientation skills vary widely in the general population. We speak of developmental topographical disorientation only when someone has been getting lost in familiar places since childhood, without brain damage or another condition that explains it, and when this limits daily life.
Are men better navigators than women?
Average differences appear in some tasks, but they are modest and depend on strategy, experience and spatial anxiety. Individual differences within each group are far larger than the gap between groups, which is why we study internal factors one by one.
Does using GPS weaken spatial cognition?
Relying only on turn-by-turn directions reduces the chance to build a mental map of a place, although we find that skilled navigators use them to discover new paths. The evidence on long-term effects is still developing, so we treat it as an open research question rather than a settled fact.
Can orientation be trained?
Training studies, including work on navigation games and visuo-spatial exercises, suggest that specific skills improve with practice. How far these gains transfer to everyday navigation is one of the questions our research products try to answer.
Methodological transparency
- Figures on this page come from our peer-reviewed publications; each figure links to or names its source.
- Prevalence estimates refer to the sample studied (young Italian adults) and should not be read as worldwide rates.
- We report results from validated tests and state their limits, as in the comparison table above.
- The full list of papers is on our publications page.
Scientific collaborations and orientation questions
Colleagues proposing a scientific collaboration, students looking for a thesis project, and anyone who gets lost and wants to understand why can write to laura.piccardi@uniroma1.it.