Individual- and gender-related differences in indoor wayfinding

The current study used a variety of behavioral and self-report measures to examine gender differences in wayfinding behavior following incidental learning in an unfamiliar indoor environment. College students were led along a circuitous route and then asked to find their way back to the start. Choice of route back, comments made during the task, directional accuracy, and self-report after the task indicated three relatively efficient patterns of wayfinding and a distinctly inefficient pattern, characterized by frequent back-tracking, poor directional accuracy, and uncertainty about the task. Gender differences showed a discrepancy between measures of wayfinding efficiency and directional accuracy. Although there was no gender difference in choice of route back, men were significantly more accurate than women in locating the direction of the destination. Also, women reported significantly more uncertainty about carrying out the task.