Parsing the Knowledge of London cabbies

Parsing the Knowledge of London cabbies

Author: PNAS May 19, 2025 Duration: 11:42

Insights in route planning from London taxi drivers

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Hugo Spiers, Pablo Fernández Velasco, and Eva-Marie Griesbauer share what they learned about human route planning from talking with London taxi drivers.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[00:59] Cognitive neuroscientist Hugo Spiers reviews previous studies on human route planning.
•[01:29] Cognitive scientist and philosopher Pablo Fernández Velasco talks about why they chose to study London taxi drivers.
•[01:49] Spiers describes the test that qualifies London taxi drivers.
•[02:39] Spiers explains the experimental procedure.
•[04:01] A recording of a taxi driver describing a route.
•[04:57] Fernández talks about the data analysis.
•[05:22] Psychologist Eva-Maria Griesbauer talks about the experience of interviewing taxi drivers.
•[05:56] Fernández, Spiers, and Griesbauer recount the results of the study.
•[08:43] Fernández and Spiers talk about the implications for the study of human route planning.
•[10:22] Fernández describes the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[11:15] Conclusion.

About Our Guests:

Hugo Spiers
Professor
University College London

Pablo Fernández Velasco
Postdoctoral researcher
University of York

Eva-Maria Griesbauer
Postdoctoral researcher
University College London

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2407814122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
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