Spatial anxiety is a sense of anxiety an individual experiences while processing environmental information contained in one's geographical space (in the sense of Montello's classification of space),[ 1] with the purpose of navigation and orientation through that space (usually unfamiliar, or very little known).[ 2] Spatial anxiety is also linked to the feeling of stress regarding the anticipation of a spatial-content related performance task[ 3] [ 4] (such as mental rotation , spatial perception, spatial visualisation , object location memory, dynamic spatial ability).[ 5] Particular cases of spatial anxiety can result in a more severe form of distress, as in agoraphobia .[ 6]
^ Montello, Daniel R. (1993), Frank, Andrew U.; Campari, Irene (eds.), "Scale and multiple psychologies of space" , Spatial Information Theory A Theoretical Basis for GIS , Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 716, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 312–321, doi :10.1007/3-540-57207-4_21 , ISBN 978-3-540-57207-7 , S2CID 10877253 , retrieved 2022-05-07
^ Lawton, Carol A. (1994). "Gender differences in way-finding strategies: Relationship to spatial ability and spatial anxiety" . Sex Roles . 30 (11–12): 765–779. doi :10.1007/BF01544230 . ISSN 0360-0025 . S2CID 144558948 . leaving a store that you have been to for the first time and deciding which way to turn to get to a destination" "finding your way around in an unfamiliar mall
^ Ramirez, Gerardo; Gunderson, Elizabeth A.; Levine, Susan C.; Beilock, Sian L. (2012). "Spatial Anxiety Relates to Spatial Abilities as a Function of Working Memory in Children" . Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology . 65 (3): 474–487. doi :10.1080/17470218.2011.616214 . ISSN 1747-0218 . PMID 22239255 . S2CID 2569378 . how do you feel being asked to say which direction is right or left? "how do you feel when you are asked to point to a certain place on a map, like this one?" "how do you feel when you have to solve a maze like this in one minute?
^ Malanchini, Margherita; Rimfeld, Kaili; Shakeshaft, Nicholas G.; Rodic, Maja; Schofield, Kerry; Selzam, Saskia; Dale, Philip S.; Petrill, Stephen A.; Kovas, Yulia (2017). "The genetic and environmental aetiology of spatial, mathematics and general anxiety" . Scientific Reports . 7 (1): 42218. Bibcode :2017NatSR...742218M . doi :10.1038/srep42218 . ISSN 2045-2322 . PMC 5318949 . PMID 28220830 .
^ Chrisler, Joan C.; McCreary, Donald R., eds. (2010). Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology . New York, NY: Springer New York. doi :10.1007/978-1-4419-1465-1 . ISBN 978-1-4419-1464-4 .
^ Zucchelli, Micaela Maria; Piccardi, Laura; Nori, Raffaella (2021-06-16). "The Fear to Move in a Crowded Environment. Poor Spatial Memory Related to Agoraphobic Disorder" . Brain Sciences . 11 (6): 796. doi :10.3390/brainsci11060796 . ISSN 2076-3425 . PMC 8235653 . PMID 34208661 .