Age differences in adults' spatial abilities, learning environmental layout, and wayfinding behavior

Empirical relations among age, general spatial ability as assessed by psychometric tests, wayfinding-related skills as assessed by experimental tasks in the laboratory, environmental layout learning as assessed in a field experiment, and wayfinding behavior as observed in a field experiment were modeled in a study involving 120 younger and 120 older adults. The best-fitting model showed that age-related differences in learning environmental layout were significantly, but not exclusively, mediated by a single ability factor defined by psychometric tests. Knowledge of environmental layout was the exclusive mediator between general spatial ability and wayfinding behavior. Thus, age differences in psychometric test performance were found to be a major factor in accounting for aging-related decline in learning environmental layout, but other variables not assessed in this study also play a significant role.