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Open research questions in Spatial Cognition and Navigation

573 gap statements mined from Spatial Cognition and Navigation papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,781 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • Future research could focus on nighttime hours to avoid such potential confounding variables.

    Spatial Cognition in the Field: A New Approach Using the Smartphone’s Compass Sensors and Navigation Apps · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies could explore how these environmental cues interact with navigation strategies and memory recall. One limitation of this study was the immediate nature of our data.

    Navigating Cognitive Maps: Statistical Analysis of 3D Path Data in Minecraft · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research with more extensive resources is warranted to examine learning effects on longer retention intervals.

    Playing for Keeps: Long‐Term Recall With an Application Using Virtual Reality and the Method of Loci · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine self-presence alongside copresence and embodiment to better disentangle the mechanisms through which immersive media influence perspective-taking in human–robot interaction. Future research should investigate perspective-taking in more ecologically valid scenarios, where adopting a robot’s perspective directly affects task success or safety.

    Spontaneous visual perspective-taking in human–robot interaction as a methodological artifact of spatial stimulus arrangement · 2026 · DOI

  • The effects of reality modality have rarely been tested independently due to challenges with isolating it. Prior work has not adequately addressed the question of whether virtual environments are equivalent to real-world performance.

    Reality modality does not significantly modulate spatial memory in matched virtual and augmented reality · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research with questionnaires on pictograms should use open or multi-part questions to find preferences. Specifically, replacing the 1-out-of-3 choice method with a ‘Select-All-That-Apply’ (SATA) checkbox setup would let evaluators pick several valid pictograms at once.

    A User-Based Study on the Graphic Parameters of Pictorial Symbols for Tourist Maps · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore a broader range of spatial cognitive components, including path integration and landmark identification, as well as the impact of higher-fidelity immersive systems on spatial orientation to determine if increased resolution reduces the perceptual biases observed in this study.

    Enhancing Spatial Orientation and Map-Reading Skills: Using Mental Maps and VR in Field Trips for Geography Students · 2026 · DOI

  • Building on this, future studies could manipulate the direction of translational motion—anchoring 0° to linear movement and introducing increasing angular offsets at onset to produce curvier trajectories—to examine their influence via translational motion aftereffects. Second, exploring the role of embodied cognition through hand-tracking technologies presents a promising research direction.

    Metacognitive reflections on trajectory strategies in mixed reality: real-time and retrospective reports during mental jigsaw puzzles · 2026 · DOI

  • Future studies could consider the link between spatial skills and mathematics in different educational settings. Second, as a correlational study, this research explored the predictive relationship between spatial reasoning and mathematics performance, but could not establish causality. Under-standing gaps in research networks: Using spatial reasoning as a window into the importance of networked educational research.

    Spatial Reasoning and Its Contribution to Mathematical Performance Across Different Content Domains: Evidence from Chinese Students · 2025 · DOI

  • The advantages of audio or visual navigation in wayfinding behavior might be related to daily habits, cognitive load, and other factors, which could be further explored later.

    Navigating by Design: Effects of Individual Differences and Navigation Modality on Spatial Memory Acquisition · 2025 · DOI

  • The general methodologies and technologies reviewed in this paper could be widely applied to other tests of cognitive abilities and may deepen our understanding of cognitive functions through a fine-grained examination of behaviors and should be explored further.

    Looking Ahead: Advancing Measurement and Analysis of the Block Design Test Using Technology and Artificial Intelligence · 2024 · DOI

  • Future studies should investigate whether group-based or technology-assisted adaptations of the mediation protocol can produce comparable results. Finally, while the current study focused on rotation angle as a task parameter, future research should examine how complexity and symmetry dimensions interact with mediation effects across different age groups and ability levels.

    Cognitive Modifiability of Mental Rotation: Effects of Mediation, Sex, and Working Memory Among Third-Grade Students · 2026 · DOI

  • Finally, future research could explore how targeted instructional interventions may support the development of spatial relations, particularly in relation to directional reasoning and the coordination of reference systems.

    Rethinking the Assessment of Preschoolers’ Spatial Skills: A Typology Based on Spatial Relations · 2026 · DOI

  • Fourth, future research could explore how non-verbal responses, such as visual attention and physiological signals, relate to users’ verbal descriptions of visual impressions.

    Visual Impression of Urban Space: A Systematic Review of Empirical Findings, Challenges, and Opportunities · 2026 · DOI

  • The absence of a meta-analysis is not itself a limitation; the key limitations are the lack of comparable effect estimates, limited controlled evidence, and uncertainty about bias and generalizability.

    Audio-motor and related audio-spatial interventions for spatial function in people with visual impairment: a systematic review · 2026 · DOI

  • The next steps will be to conduct additional research on the learning outcomes for the technology component of the intervention and to validate findings in a larger study.

    Enhancing Preschool Spatial Skills: A Comprehensive Intervention Using Digital Games and Hands-On Activities · 2025 · DOI

  • Further investigation into the specific teaching methods, curriculum content and spatial tasks encountered in each discipline can provide insights into the factors influencing the varying improvements.

    Enhancing Spatial Ability among Undergraduate First-Year Engineering and Architecture Students · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research could explore these design choices more systematically and evaluate their impact on predictive performance.

    Understanding Adults’ Spatial Cognitive Processes: A Time-Embedded N-Grams Model with Machine Learning · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should examine which spatial activities help students develop their spatial skills.

    The relation of spatial skills, spatial memory span, and two anxiety types with statistics anxiety in European and North American University students · 2026 · DOI

  • Still, further research is needed to expand and strengthen our findings. An important limitation of our study could be the demographic profile of the participants, which may not fully represent the experiences and perceptions of the wider population, and this could reduce the generalizability of the results.

    Search Efficiency and Visual Appeal of Pictorial-Based and Typography-Based Map · 2026 · DOI

  • Across the reviewed literature, G-TUIs are most commonly applied in educational and urban or landscape design contexts, although substantial opportunities remain to better understand their effectiveness and extend their use into additional domains. We point out that empirical evidence for the effectiveness of these applications is not extensive and clearly requires further research on the topic.

    Technologies and Applications of Geocomputational Tangible User Interfaces · 2026 · DOI

  • Early childhood years play a crucial role in motor development, as they involve the integration of various developmental and learning abilities through both gross and fine motor skills. According to Gallahue, motor skills can be categorized into locomotion skills, manipulation skills, and stability skills (Cleland and Gallahue 1993).

    A Study on the Design of Embedded Visual Image Teaching Aids to Assist Young Children’s Cognitive and Fine Motor Development · 2024 · DOI

  • A potential limitation of the present study is the use of three-dimensional stimuli presented on a screen, although they included reliable spatial cues such as perspective, depth, and relative size…

    How implicit social information shapes spatial memory of objects · 2026 · DOI

  • It motivates further investigation of whether similar cognitive mechanisms support multimodal Self–Other representational distinctions, including somatosensory and higher-order representations, across ToM tasks.

    The behavioral evidence of processing congruences and incongruences between Self- and Other-perspective-related representations during both perspective judgments · 2026 · DOI

  • Consider piloting a beacon-based audio guidance system on one line to supplement tactile paths.

    Enhancing Metro Wayfinding Through Interior Design for Sustainable Urban Mobility: A Comparative Analysis of Riyadh Metro and Global Best Practices · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Spatial Cognition and Navigation

Most recent work

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Future research could focus on nighttime hours to avoid such potential confounding variables (“Spatial Cognition in the Field: A New Approach Using the Smartphone’s Compass…”, 2026); (2) Future studies could explore how these environmental cues interact with navigation strategies and memory recall (“Navigating Cognitive Maps: Statistical Analysis of 3D Path Data in Minecraft”, 2026); (3) Future research with more extensive resources is warranted to examine learning effects on longer retention intervals (“Playing for Keeps: Long‐Term Recall With an Application Using Virtual Reality…”, 2026); (4) Future research should examine self-presence alongside copresence and embodiment to better disentangle the mechanisms through which immersive media influence perspective-taking in human–robot interaction (“Spontaneous visual perspective-taking in human–robot interaction as a…”, 2026); (5) Future studies should investigate whether group-based or technology-assisted adaptations of the mediation protocol can produce comparable results (“Cognitive Modifiability of Mental Rotation: Effects of Mediation, Sex, and…”, 2026). 573 gap statements have been mined from Spatial Cognition and Navigation papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 2,781 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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