Evidence show higher levels of spatial anxiety in women, who tend to choose route strategies, as opposed to men, who tend to choose orientation strategies (a fact which, in turn, has been found to be negatively related to spatial anxiety).
[4] The scale measures the degree of anxiety regarding the individual's experience and performance, in tasks assessing one's information processing related to the environment; such as way-finding and navigation.
[9][10] Spatial anxiety is also negatively correlated navigation proficiency ratings on the self-reported sense of direction measures,[11][12] as well as orientation (map based) and route (egocentric) strategies.
[10] In an experiment where participants were required to use directional instructions to move a toy car in a virtual three-dimensional environment, those with higher reported spatial anxiety performed with less accuracy.
The use of orientation (based on map view) strategies in indoor or/and outdoor environment can be associated with lower levels of spatial anxiety.
The findings suggest that gender differences in distal gradient and new cue perception varied based on stress condition.
[9][15] In addition, it has been demonstrated that people with Agoraphobia Disorder have reduced visuo-spatial working memory when they are required to process multiple spatial elements simultaneously.
Specifically, in tasks where they were required to navigate using the landmarks independent of themselves (allocentric coordinates), visuo-spatial working memory deficits were shown to hinder their performance.
[15] Bilateral vestibulopathy can cause higher levels of spatial anxiety, potentially related to hippocampal atrophy.
[21][22] Possible explanations for the negative correlation between spatial anxiety and the ability to form cognitive map include: individuals lacking sense of their own position with respect to the external environment are more likely to get anxious when faced with unplanned navigation, and the anxiety about becoming lost itself may reduce the ability to attend to cues necessary for way-finding strategizing.