News release

From: Flinders University

Cognitive decline can affect more than memory. It can also make it harder to navigate familiar places and find your way – including finding your way home from the supermarket.

Flinders University and other researchers are using spatial navigation as a new way to detect early changes in cognitive health.

Published by the Alzheimer’s Association, the new Spatial Navigation and Memory (SPAM) Questionnaire aims to serve as a tool for more accessible, time efficient clinical testing that is sensitive to cognitive ageing.

In a study involving 940 older adults, Flinders cognitive neuroscientists Dr Monique Boord and Dr Stephanie Wong led the assessment of the self-reporting SPAM questionnaire, finding that it captures individuals’ perceived spatial navigation and memory function both across their lifetime and within the past three months.

“We found that the SPAM captured two distinct but related aspects of cognitive function, spatial navigation and memory responses, in healthy older adults. These findings provide support for the SPAM as a measure of these domains and its use in cognitive ageing,” says Dr Boord, Research Fellow in Mental Health at Flinders University.

“Difficulty navigating unfamiliar environments and subtle disorientation are common in Alzheimer's disease, and often precedes noticeable memory loss and later significant navigational deficits.”

Senior co-author Dr Wong adds: “People in the early stages of dementia often face a hidden challenge. They begin to struggle with directions and get lost, even in familiar places.

“While patients notice these changes, clinicians haven’t had a step-by-step checklist to ask about them.

“Relying on personal memory is too subjective. By introducing a structured way to track these spatial navigational difficulties, our research team can help clinicians remove the guesswork, spot cognitive decline much sooner, and help families plan their loved ones’ safety.”

While research suggests that changes in spatial navigation may emerge in the early stages of Alheimer’s, spatial navigation is not routinely assessed in clinical settings.

The authors say the new research validates the SPAM questionnaire and may offer a practical and time-efficient tool for clinicians to access spatial navigation and memory ability once also validated in people with a diagnosis of dementia.

This research is tied in with the Spatial Navigation Assessment Validation and Implementation (SNAVI) project in Adelaide, which is still seeking participants to be assessed for the new testing regime.

If you have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's disease, you may be eligible for cognitive testing based on an assessment of your navigation skills.

For more information about development of the new assessment, please email: snavi.project@flinders.edu.au or call Dr Alexandra Wade on (08) 7421 9490.

The research article, 'Development and validation of the Spatial Navigation and Memory questionnaire (SPAM)' 2026 by Monique S Boord, Sol Morrissey, Hannah AD Keage, Victor R Schinazi, Michael Hornberger and Stephanie Wong has been published in the Alzheimer's Association journal, Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring.

https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.70441 DOI:10.1002/dad2.70441.  First published: 11 August 2026