This paper considers the effect of receiving a secondary source of inf
ormation upon ability to acquire and use spatial knowledge (i.e. the f
ormation of a cognitive map). Participants watch videos of three journ
eys through an unfamiliar area. They then perform tasks measuring abil
ity to integrate the routes into a cognitive map of the area. Subjects
viewing the routes whilst hearing route guidance information performe
d consistently worse than those receiving no guidance. The presence of
non-salient information, however, did not impair performance. Existin
g studies highlighting differences between gender and age groups regar
ding spatial ability receive only partial support: the results suggest
that ability to drive negates these effects. Female drivers perform a
s well as, if not better than, their male counterparts, and outperform
male non-drivers. This same 'driving' effect was also evident in the
other-55s group, with both male and female drivers performing signific
antly better than non-drivers in this age group. The results also show
that driving ability enhances ability to cope with and use guidance i
nformation, suggesting that systems' designers should make varying lev
els of spatial information available for less experienced drivers.