Stress makes navigators abandon shortcuts, UCSB research finds

Under stress, people navigate less efficiently. They follow familiar paths even when better options are available. The effect is sharpest in people with the most accurate mental maps of their environment. A UC Santa Barbara study published in Scientific Reports documents how acute stress reshapes navigation strategy and efficiency, with implications for emergency response and other high-stakes real-world scenarios.

The study was conducted by a multi-PI team including Mary Hegarty, Michael Beyeler, Barry Giesbrecht, and Scott Grafton, with graduate researchers Apurv Varshney, Mitchell Munns, Mantong Zhou, Chuanxiuyue He, and Justin Kasowski. The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office through the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (ICB).

Forty-eight participants navigated a virtual maze using a wireless head-mounted display, first learning a fixed route through the environment, then wayfinding under either standard or stress conditions. The stress condition combined time pressure, blocked paths, threatening audio, and reduced visibility through fog. Participants self-reported stress after each trial.

The results were consistent across measures. Under stress, participants were less likely to take shortcuts and traveled less efficient paths overall. The effect was concentrated among participants who had built accurate cognitive maps of the environment: those with stronger spatial knowledge showed the largest shift from flexible, map-based navigation to route-following under stress. Participants with higher trait spatial anxiety reported more stress and navigated less efficiently regardless of condition.

The use of fully immersive, ambulatory virtual reality distinguishes the study from prior work. Most earlier research relied on desktop virtual environments, which omit the proprioceptive and physical-cost cues that influence real navigation behavior. The team's stressor design also mirrors real-world challenges more closely: blocked corridors and time pressure reflect conditions faced by firefighters and emergency responders, not laboratory abstractions.

One finding has particular relevance for training. As participants advanced through trials, stress effects diminished. Whether that reflects improved spatial learning or habituation to the stressors is a question the authors flag for future work.