Road Map Test (MRMT)

Background

The Road Map Test (RMT) is a cognitive behavioral assessment test of visuo-spatial reasoning with a focus on evaluating a person’s directional sense. It was introduced by John Money and colleagues in 1965 as a paper and pencil task. It provides a participant with a 2D road map of a simple town and asks participants to imagine they would be driving through this town on a pre-determined route. Their task is to indicate at each intersection whether they would turn right or left without turning the paper to align with their own perspective. The Millisecond implementation is a computer adapted version of the test providing a game like environment with automatic performance scoring and decision speed assessment that might also appeal to a younger audience.

Task Procedure

A participant is asked to imagine driving in little blue car (represented by a blue dot) through a town following a specific route that is indicated by a dotted line. At each intersection the car stops and the participant has to set the turn signal (by mouse click or touch) to indicate whether to make a right or a left turn. During a short practice session, the participant receives immediate error feedback and is asked to correct the response. No feedback is provided during the test session but optional feedback can be provided at the conclusion of the test.

What it Measures

The Road Map Test (RMT) is a cognitive assessment tool of spatial reasoning and directional sense.

Psychological domains

• Visuospatial Ability: Active manipulation of visual and spatial information
• Topographic Orientation: Ability to maintain a consistent internal map while navigating a complex path ('sense of direction')

Main Performance Metrics

• Accuracy: Number of correct (error) responses/Proportion Correct (Incorrect) Responses/ Percent Correct (incorrect) Responses
• Decision Speed: Response times (in ms) of correct responses

Psychiatric Conditions

RMT performance tends to be impaired in patients with the following psychiatric conditions:

• Dementia
• Parietal Lobe Lesions
• Parkinson's Disease (PD)
• Gerstmann's Syndrome
• Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD)