Pokemon Go as a tool to study the social and cognitive factors that impact spatial navigation

Researchers in spatial navigation have the difficult task of finding ecologically valid measures while maintaining a reasonable degree of internal validity. This often means simulating wayfinding and navigation task in the laboratory which increases control but eliminates the experience of walking around a natural environment. Augmented reality games like Pokemon Go allow researchers a novel way to study individual differences in cognitive and social factors in wayfinding with a game already designed to motivate players to move around in the real world. In the current study, Pokemon Go was played either individually or socially (2 players) while a map of the player' speed and location was created in real time. We measured play style preference, game experience and basic spatial skills (mental rotation). Mental rotation performance was correlated with enjoying the game and being more motivated to play. Although games scores and distances traveled did not differ between the individual and cooperative groups, participates reported a strong preference for playing with a group over playing alone.