Living off the grid: Spatial representations show systematic non-Euclidean distortions regardless of their age and how measured

Spatial memory is key for our ability to live independent lives (e.g., patients with Alzheimer's disease lose independence, partially due to disorientation in familiar environments). Typical laboratory-based measures of spatial memory use novel environments that may differ in complexity vs. real-world environments (e.g., size, layout, number of landmarks, duration of exploration, personal relevance). We leveraged breakthroughs in technology to study spatial memory across several tasks and temporal scales, from a novel environment navigated over the course of several minutes to a university campus (e.g., months to years) to hometowns (e.g., years to decades). We observed consistent evidence for systematic distortions in spatial memory, which supports the hypothesis that spatial memory is supported by a cognitive graph, thus posing an important challenge to the extremely influential Euclidean, "cognitive map" hypothesis that was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2014.