Most research groups studying human navigational behavior with virtual environment (VE) technology develop their own tasks and protocols. This makes it difficult to compare results between groups and to create normative data sets for any specific navigational task. Such norms, however, are prerequisites for the use of navigation assessments as diagnostic tools-for example, to support the early and differential diagnosis of atypical aging. Here we start addressing these problems by presenting and evaluating a new navigation test suite that we make freely available to other researchers (https://osf.io/mx52y/). Specifically, we designed three navigational tasks, which are adaptations of earlier published tasks used to study the effects of typical and atypical aging on navigation: a route-repetition task that can be solved using egocentric navigation strategies, and route-retracing and directional-approach tasks that both require allocentric spatial processing. Despite introducing a number of changes to the original tasks to make them look more realistic and ecologically valid, and therefore easy to explain to people unfamiliar with a VE or who have cognitive impairments, we replicated the findings from the original studies. Specifically, we found general agerelated declines in navigation performance and additional specific difficulties in tasks that required allocentric processes. These findings demonstrate that our new tasks have task demands similar to those of the original tasks, and are thus suited to be used more widely. Keywords Navigation. Route learning. Navigation test. Cognitive aging Spatial navigation is a fundamental cognitive ability that is important for mobility and independence. However, a growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated agerelated declines in a variety of orientation and navigational tasks, including route learning and repetition (

This article reports on a pilot study that investigated the use of graffiti arts as a medium for promoting self-expression in people with dementia. Two people with dementia attended a series of workshops with a graffiti artist where they explored their feelings of changing identity following their dementia diagnoses. As part of the workshops, they were encouraged to develop a personal 'tag' or signature to portray their sense of identity and a piece of street art to express 'their message'. These completed artworks were displayed in a public space in Bournemouth, UK.

Most research groups studying human navigation behaviour with virtual environments (VE) technology develop their own paradigms. This makes it difficult to compare results between groups, but also to create normative data sets for any specific navigation task. Such norms, however, are prerequisites for the use of navigation assessments as diagnostic tools, for example, to support the early and differential diagnosis of atypical aging. Here we start addressing these problems by presenting and evaluating a new navigation test battery that we make freely available to other researchers ( https://osf.io/mx52y/ ). Specifically, we designed three navigation tasks, which are adaptation of earlier published paradigms used to study the effects of typical and atypical ageing on navigation: a route repetition task that can be solved using egocentric or viewpoint dependent navigation strategies, and a route retracing and the different approach direction tasks both of which require viewpoint independent processing. Despite introducing a number of changes to the original paradigms to make them look realistic and ecologically valid, and therefore easy to explain to people unfamiliar with VE or with cognitive impairments, we were able to replicate the findings from the original studies. Specifically, we found general age-related declines in navigation performance and additional specific deficits in tasks that required viewpoint independent or allocentric processes.These findings demonstrate that our new paradigms render reliable results and are thus suited to be used more widely.