Tracing a Route and Finding a Shortcut: The Working Memory, Motivational, and Personality Factors Involved

Wayfinding (WF) is the ability to move around efficiently and find the way from a starting point to a destination. It is a component of spatial navigation, a coordinate and goal-directed movement of one\u2019s self through the environment. In the present study, the relationship between WF tasks (route tracing and shortcut finding) and individual factors were explored with the hypothesis that WF tasks would be predicted by different types of cognitive, affective, motivational variables, and personality factors. A group of 116 university students (88 F.) were conducted along a route in a virtual environment and then asked first to trace the same route again, and then to find a shortcut between the start and end points. Several instruments assessing visuospatial working memory, mental rotation ability, self-efficacy, spatial anxiety, positive attitude to exploring, and personality traits were administered. The results showed that a latent spatial ability factor (measured with the visuospatial working memory and mental rotations tests) \u2013 controlled for gender \u2013 predicted route-tracing performance, while self-report measures of anxiety, efficacy, and pleasure in exploring, and some personality traits were more likely to predict shortcut-finding performance. We concluded that both personality and cognitive abilities affect WF performance, but differently, depending on the requirements of the task

Navigational style influences eye movement pattern during exploration and learning of an environmental map

During navigation people may adopt three different spatial styles (i.e., Landmark, Route, and Survey). Landmark style (LS) people are able to recall familiar landmarks but cannot combine them with directional information; Route style (RS) people connect landmarks to each other using egocentric information about direction; Survey style (SS) people use a map-like representation of the environment. SS individuals generally navigate better than LS and RS people. Fifty-one college students (20 LS; 17 RS, and 14 SS) took part in the experiment. The spatial cognitive style (SCS) was assessed by means of the SCS test; participants then had to learn a schematic map of a city, and after 5 min had to recall the path depicted on it. During the learning and delayed recall phases, eye-movements were recorded. Our intent was to investigate whether there is a peculiar way to explore an environmental map related to the individual's spatial style. Results support the presence of differences in the strategy used by the three spatial styles for learning the path and its delayed recall. Specifically, LS individuals produced a greater number of fixations of short duration, while the opposite eye movement pattern characterized SS individuals. Moreover, SS individuals showed a more spread and comprehensive explorative pattern of the map, while LS individuals focused their exploration on the path and related targets. RS individuals showed a pattern of exploration at a level of proficiency between LS and SS individuals. We discuss the clinical and anatomical implications of our data

Memory for Object Location in Augmented Reality: The Role of Gender and the Relationship Among Spatial and Anxiety Outcomes

The potential of augmented reality (AR) technology for the study of spatial memory and orientation is a new research field. AR defines systems that attempt to enhance the user's experience with the physical world. In our app, we enhance the sense of sight by adding interactive 3D elements to the real environment. Our app can be used in any real environment so that the experimental conditions during the tasks and the way in which an individual navigates are similar to those used in real life. With AR, the experimenter has a high level of control of the task and can store the participant's responses accurately. The classical factors that influence an individual's performance on virtual spatial tasks are gender and cognitive factors. The influence of emotional factors on spatial performance has been studied more recently. Since AR tasks for the study of spatial memory and spatial orientation are new developments, little is known about the factors that are related to performance on tasks of this type. In our study, we tested 46 young adults (26 women) in an AR object-location task that was performed in a building. The participants had to memorize the position of eight virtual objects while they were walking through the environment. We also assessed the participants' performance on an object-recall task, a map-pointing task, and a paper-and-pencil spatial orientation task. The self-reported importance of different spatial strategies for wayfinding and the levels of trait anxiety and wayfinding anxiety were also evaluated. Our findings indicate that men performed better on the spatial paper-and-pencil test and spent more time completing the learning phase of the AR task. The spatial memory for the location of the objects in AR and on the map correlated positively. Anxiety was related to individual differences in the self-reported use of a spatial orientation strategy, but the association among them was weak. Trait anxiety was positively related to the time employed by the participants during the learning phase of the AR task, whereas wayfinding anxiety correlated negatively with the preference for an orientation strategy. Our results highlight the importance of anxiety in spatial orientation

Investigating the impact of different types of directions on wayfinding efficiency in an informal settlement

Informal settlements are a common occurrence in the South African landscape. These settlements are not planned and therefore lack conventional urban characteristics, such as street names and a regular grid or block structure, which are useful aids during wayfinding. As a result, it is difficult to navigate through such a settlement or to provide directions to a specific destination. The lack of street names also implies that directions provided by others play a more important role. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative between-subjects study that assessed individuals’ wayfinding efficiency when using different types of directions in an informal settlement. Participants were divided into two groups of six participants each (3 males and 3 females). Two sets of directions were constructed for the same route, one based on left-right turn descriptors and landmarks, and the second based on cardinal directions and distances. The performance of participants was measured for each set of directions. Earlier studies reported that people preferred left-right directions but performed better when using cardinal directions. The results of our study show the opposite. We think that this is due to the lack of regular wayfinding aids in informal settlements, but further studies are required to confirm this. The results of our study are interesting for developers of navigational tools aimed at addressing the needs of people in informal settlements

Wayfinding Strategy and Gender - Testing the Mediating Effects of Wayfinding Experience, Personality and Emotions

Background: Individual differences have been seen to play a key role in spatial orientation. Gender implications have been previously described but little is known about how other variables, such as wayfinding anxiety, emotional difficulties and wayfinding experience can mediate this relationship. Methods: A group of 269 participants were involved in this study and completed questionnaires on their self-reported allocentric orientation strategy, wayfinding experience and satisfaction with the ability for wayfinding. Emotional outcomes were also investigated: spatial and trait anxiety, neuroticism, difficulties in emotion regulation, and personal safety. First, a principal component analysis was conducted and the studied variables were grouped into four components: outdoor wayfinding experience, wayfinding-related fear, emotional difficulties, and effective wayfinding skill. Afterwards, structural equation modelling was performed, using the MPLUS statistical program. Results: The results showed that gender constitutes a predictor for using an effective wayfinding skill and for feeling wayfinding-related fear. However, outdoor wayfinding experience, wayfinding-related fear and emotional difficulties did not mediate the relationship between effective wayfinding skill and gender. Conclusion: These results highlight the differential contribution of gender in the emotions that are experienced during spatial orientation and emotions that are related to other types of situations. The limitations, strengths and theoretical implications of the proposed model are discussed. Further investigation is needed in order to understand the role of emotions in spatial orientation

Urban environment, emotions, and spatial representations: an experimental study

Nel campo della psicologia cognitiva, la letteratura suggerisce che sia le differenze individuali che il tipo di ambiente giochino un ruolo importante nella creazione delle rappresentazioni spaziali. La ricerca si propone di analizzare la performance spaziale in ambienti con caratteristiche diverse; intende anche indagare se gli aspetti emotivi, quali l'ansia spaziale e gli stati affettivi abbiano un ruolo nella relazione tra l'ambiente che il soggetto naviga e la sua performance spaziale. Inoltre, lo studio analizza gli effetti ristoratori degli ambienti naturali, i quali si pensa possano ricostituire le energie cognitive degli individui e conseguentemente migliorare la loro performance in compiti spaziali. La ricerca è stata strutturata in due sessioni: nella prima i partecipanti hanno compilato una serie di questionari principalmente volti alla valutazione delle loro attitudini spaziali, oltre ad un test di rotazione mentale, indice delle capacità visuospaziali cruciali per l'apprendimento spaziale. Nella seconda sessione i partecipanti hanno attraversato sei percorsi sperimentali, situati sia in ambienti naturali che costruiti; alla fine di ognuno, gli era richiesto di stimare la distanza tra il punto di inizio e quello di fine, e di valutare la loro variazione emotiva durante l'esperimento.In the domain of cognitive psychology, literature suggests that both individual differences and types of environment play an important role in the creation of mental spatial representations. The current research mainly aims at exploring spatial performance in different environmental characteristics; it also intends to analyze whether emotional aspects, such as spatial anxiety and affective states play a role in the relationship between the type of environment navigated and spatial performance. Moreover, the study also explores the restorativeness effects of natural environments, which are thought to allow individuals to replenish their cognitive energies and perform better on spatial tasks. The research consisted of two sessions: in the first one, participants completed a series of questionnaires mainly designed to assess navigational attitudes, as well as a short version of the mental rotation test, index of visuospatial skills critical for environmental learning. In the second session participants walked six experimental routes, situated in both natural and built environments, and were then asked to estimate the distance between the starting and ending point, as well as to evaluate their emotional variations during the sperimentation

Brain dynamic during landmark-based learning spatial navigation

In the current study, I investigated both human behavior and brain dynamics during spatial navigation to gain a better understanding of human navigational strategies and brain signals that underlie spatial cognition. To this end, a custom-built virtual reality task and a 64-channel scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) were utilized to study participants. At the first step, we presented a novel, straightforward, yet powerful tool to evaluate individual differences during navigation, comprising of a virtual radial-arm maze inspired to the animal experiments. The virtual maze is designed and furnished, similar to an art gallery, to provide a more realistic and exciting environment for subjects’ exploration. We investigated whether a different set of instructions (explicit or implicit) affects subjects’ navigational performance, and we assessed the effect of the set of instructions on exploration strategies during both place learning and recall. We tested 42 subjects and evaluated their way-finding ability. Individual differences were assessed through the analysis of the navigational paths, which permitted the isolation and definition of a few strategies adopted by both subjects who adopted a more explicit strategy, based on explicit instructions, and an implicit strategy, based on implicit instructions. The second step aimed to explore brain dynamics and neurophysiological activity during spatial navigation. More specifically, we aimed to figure out how navigational related brain regions are connected and how their interactions and electrical activity vary according to different navigational tasks and environment. This experiment was divided into two steps: learning phase and test phase. The same virtual maze (art gallery) as the behavioral part of the study was used so that subjects to perform landmark-based navigation. The main task of the experiment was finding and memorizing the position of some goals within the environment during the learning phase and retrieving the spatial information of the goals during the test phase. We recorded EEG signals of 20 subjects during the experiment, and both scalp-level and source-level analysis approaches were employed to figure out how the brain represents the spatial location of landmarks and targets and, more precisely, how different brain regions contribute to spatial orientation and landmark-based learning during navigation

Gender differences in spatial ability within virtual reality

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Navigational decision making and spatial abilities

Understanding human spatial cognition and behaviour is not something easily studied. Many factors are involved that contribute in different ways for different individuals. Navigation and wayfinding have been used as an approach, or starting point, for such studies. Spatial abilities tests have long been used as reference points to generalize to overt navigational behaviour. Care needs to be taken in generalizing from paper to behaviour to make certain that it is a valid relationship exists.The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which certain psychometric spatial abilities tests are indicators of actual navigational decision making. The study was conducted in two phases. The navigational decision tasks were made up of four paths with two variables: length and number of turns. The participants were required to make a decision on which direction to go after being lead part of the way around a hallway. The choices were to either go back the way they were led or take a novel route along a previously un-travelled path (shortcut). Spatial abilities tests (MRT, PFT, and OLMT), a self-rating of SOD, and learning preference for novel environments were administered in phase two. While efficient navigation was not explicitly required in the navigation tasks those participants making the most efficient decisions shared similar characteristics. Efficient navigators have a higher aptitude for mental manipulation (as measured by the MRT), express a preference for a more ‘exploratory’ environmental learning style, are disproportionately male, and have a slightly higher self-rating of SOD. In addition to the collective set of four navigation decisions (one for each experimental path), path 2 demonstrated the ‘efficient vs. non-efficient’ distinction quite well: in order to make the most efficient decision the individual must maintain the correct metric distance from the origin point and not be deterred by the passage of only half of the turns in the rectangular experimental environment