Abstract
In this study, the nature of the spatial representations of an environment acquired from maps, navigation, and virtual environments (VEs) was assessed. Participants first learned the layout of a simple desktop VE and then were tested in that environment. Then, participants learned two floors of a complex building in one of three learning conditions: from a map, from direct experience, or by traversing through a virtual rendition of the building. VE learners showed the poorest learning of the complex environment overall, and the results suggest that VE learners are particularly susceptible to disorientation after rotation. However, all the conditions showed similar levels of performance in learning the layout of landmarks on a single floor. Consistent with previous research, an alignment effect was present for map learners, suggesting that they had formed an orientation-specific representation of the environment. VE learners also showed a preferred orientation, as defined by their initial orientation when learning the environment. Learning the initial simple VE was highly predictive of learning a real environment, suggesting that similar cognitive mechanisms are involved in the two learning situations.
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This work was supported by Award DASW01-95-K-0014 from the Army Research Institute for Behavioral Science and Social Sciences. The authors are grateful to Lance Rushing for development of the virtual environment and to Michael Provenza for assisting in data collection.
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Richardson, A.E., Montello, D.R. & Hegarty, M. Spatial knowledge acquisition from maps and from navigation in real and virtual environments. Memory & Cognition 27, 741–750 (1999). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211566
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211566