GNSS设备和移动导航软件在过去十年间得到了飞速发展，已经成为越来越多的人所依赖的出行工具。但同时，研究发现它们可能对人自身的空间学习能力构成潜在威胁。被动地跟随移动导航工具使得人们不再需要依靠自身能力学习和记忆地理环境，这是否会影响个体自身的空间学习能力？目前这个问题还没有得到充分揭示，且已有研究仅局限在行为层面，缺乏更为微观的个体认知过程上的证据。

    为了回答这个问题，本研究招募了24名北京市出租车司机参加实验室环境下的空间学习实验，他们对移动导航工具有一致的使用习惯和显著的依赖差异。被试通过真实环境驾驶视频进行空间学习，随后完成场景识别、路线回溯和绘制草图任务。本研究利用眼动追踪和脑电技术，收集被试实验过程中的行为数据、眼动数据和脑电数据，并对实验数据进行如下分析：（1）通过行为数据分析被试的地标知识、路线知识和测量知识学习能力；（2）从眼动数据中获取全局眼动指标和注视点语义类别，分析被试的视觉信息处理和视觉信息搜索过程；（3）从脑电数据中获取额叶皮层相对theta波功率和注视行为引发的额叶皮层theta波段事件相关同步，分析被试的认知负荷和视觉信息编码能力。

    研究结果显示，长期使用移动导航工具会损害个体空间学习能力，具体表现在：（1）从行为表现上看，移动导航工具会损害个体获取地标知识和测量知识的能力，但是不会损害个体获取路线知识的能力；（2）从空间学习认知过程上看，长期依赖移动导航工具的个体在空间学习中对空间信息的视觉搜索更加消极，且编码空间信息的能力更差；（3）从空间学习认知负荷上看，对移动导航工具高依赖的个体在空间学习中感受到的认知负荷更高。

    总的来说，本研究的实证结果从行为表现、视觉注意模式和认知神经机制三个视角提供了移动导航工具影响个体空间学习能力的证据，可以为新一代移动导航工具的设计开发提供理论依据。

    GNSS devices and mobile navigation applications have grown rapidly over the past decade and become increasingly relied upon by humans to navigate. However, research has found that they may pose a potential threat to humans’ natural spatial learning ability. Passively following the instructions of mobile navigation aids replaces the need for humans to rely on their own ability to learn and remember geographic environment. It remains incompletely revealed how reliance on mobile navigation aids affects individuals’ spatial learning ability, and the available research is limited to the behavioral level. Evidence on individual cognitive process at the micro-level is mostly lacking.

    To answer this question, I recruited 24 Beijing taxi drivers to participate in a spatial learning experiment conducted in the laboratory. I found taxi drivers to be particularly appropriate for this research as they have consistent usage habits and significant differences in reliance on mobile navigation aids. Participants learned a specific environment through real-world driving videos presented on screen and subsequently completed scene recognition tasks, route retracing tasks, and sketch mapping tasks. I employed eye tracking and EEG techniques and collected behavioral data, eye movement data, and EEG data simultaneously during the experiment. The experimental data was analyzed as follows: 1) Behavioral data was used to evaluate participants' learning ability of landmark knowledge, route knowledge, and survey knowledge; 2) I obtained eye movement metrics and semantic categories of fixation from eye movement data to analyze participants' visual information processing and visual information searching; 3) For EEG recording, I performed a power spectrum analysis and used the relative theta power of frontal cortex to evaluate participants’ cognitive load. Theta fixation-related synchronization in the frontal cortex was calculated as an indicator of participants’ ability to encode visual information.

    The results showed that mobile navigation aids can impair individuals' spatial learning ability. To be specific: 1) In terms of behavioral performance, mobile navigation aids impair individuals' ability to acquire landmark knowledge and survey knowledge, but not route knowledge; 2) In terms of the cognitive process of spatial learning, individuals with high reliance on mobile navigation aids performed more negatively in visual searching during spatial learning and were less able to encode spatial information; 3) In terms of cognitive load, individuals with high reliance on mobile navigation aids showed higher cognitive load in spatial learning.

    In conclusion, the empirical findings of this research provide evidence of the impairment of mobile navigation aids on individuals' spatial learning ability from three perspectives: behavioral performance, visual attention, and neural response, which can provide a theoretical basis for the design and development of future mobile navigation aids.