Featured study · PLOS ONE
“Where am I?” — a survey of developmental topographical disorientation
An Italian sample of 1,698 adults suggests that around 3% of people struggle to orient themselves from childhood onward.
Publications
Publications: our peer-reviewed research on spatial cognition
Studies on navigation, cognitive maps, developmental topographical disorientation and more, published by researchers based in Rome.
Catalogue
Our publications catalogue
Explore the full list of articles, chapters and books by lab members. Summaries of recent papers are also published on our news blog.
Key figures
- participants in our DTD prevalence study
- estimated rate of lifelong disorientation
- core research areas
Research lines
What our papers investigate
Spatial navigation
How people learn routes, build cognitive maps and switch between egocentric and allocentric strategies in real and virtual cities.
Developmental topographical disorientation
Characterising people who get lost in familiar places from childhood, without brain damage, and how to support them.
Topographic working memory
Corsi, Walking Corsi and large-scale tasks that separate reaching space from navigational space.
Mental imagery & creativity
Links between visual imagery, mental rotation and creative thinking across the lifespan.
Read the paper (opens in a new tab)
From the lab
Research materials
Virtual-reality maze used in navigation studies 
Walking Corsi Test 
Mental-rotation stimulus set
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