Motivation moderates gender differences in navigation performance.

Gender differences in navigation performance are a recurrent and controversial topic. Previous research suggests that men outperform women in navigation tasks and that men and women exhibit different navigation strategies. Here, we investigate whether motivation to complete the task moderates the relationship between navigation performance and gender. Participants learned the locations of landmarks in a novel virtual city. During learning, participants could trigger a top-down map that depicted their current position and the locations of the landmarks. During testing, participants were divided into control and treatment groups and were not allowed to consult the map. All participants were given 16 minutes to navigate to the landmarks, but those in the treatment group were monetarily penalized for every second they spent completing the task. Results revealed a negative relationship between physiological arousal and the time required to locate the landmarks. In addition, gender differences in strategy were found during learning, with women spending more time with the map and taking 40% longer than men to locate the landmarks. Interestingly, an interaction between gender and treatment group revealed that women in the control group required more time than men and women in the treatment group to retrieve the landmarks. During testing, women in the control group also took more circuitous routes compared to men in the control group and women in the treatment group. These results suggest that a concurrent and relevant stressor can motivate women to perform similarly to men, helping to diminish pervasive gender differences found in the navigation literature

"Is It My Turn?"

ISSN:2573-014

Virtual reality experiments with physiological measures

Virtual reality (VR) experiments are increasingly employed because of their internal and external validity compared to real-world observation and laboratory experiments, respectively. VR is especially useful for geographic visualizations and investigations of spatial behavior. In spatial behavior research, VR provides a platform for studying the relationship between navigation and physiological measures (e.g., skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure). Specifically, physiological measures allow researchers to address novel questions and constrain previous theories of spatial abilities, strategies, and performance. For example, individual differences in navigation performance may be explained by the extent to which changes in arousal mediate the effects of task difficulty. However, the complexities in the design and implementation of VR experiments can distract experimenters from their primary research goals and introduce irregularities in data collection and analysis. To address these challenges, the Experiments in Virtual Environments (EVE) framework includes standardized modules such as participant training with the control interface, data collection using questionnaires, the synchronization of physiological measurements, and data storage. EVE also provides the necessary infrastructure for data management, visualization, and evaluation. The present paper describes a protocol that employs the EVE framework to conduct navigation experiments in VR with physiological sensors. The protocol lists the steps necessary for recruiting participants, attaching the physiological sensors, administering the experiment using EVE, and assessing the collected data with EVE evaluation tools. Overall, this protocol will facilitate future research by streamlining the design and implementation of VR experiments with physiological sensors

A networked desktop virtual reality setup for decision science and navigation experiments with multiple participants

Investigating the interactions among multiple participants is a challenge for researchers from various disciplines, including the decision sciences and spatial cognition. With a local area network and dedicated software platform, experimenters can efficiently monitor the behavior of the participants that are simultaneously immersed in a desktop virtual environment and digitalize the collected data. These capabilities allow for experimental designs in spatial cognition and navigation research that would be difficult (if not impossible) to conduct in the real world. Possible experimental variations include stress during an evacuation, cooperative and competitive search tasks, and other contextual factors that may influence emergent crowd behavior. However, such a laboratory requires maintenance and strict protocols for data collection in a controlled setting. While the external validity of laboratory studies with human participants is sometimes questioned, a number of recent papers suggest that the correspondence between real and virtual environments may be sufficient for studying social behavior in terms of trajectories, hesitations, and spatial decisions. In this article, we describe a method for conducting experiments on decision-making and navigation with up to 36 participants in a networked desktop virtual reality setup (i.e., the Decision Science Laboratory or DeSciL). This experiment protocol can be adapted and applied by other researchers in order to set up a networked desktop virtual reality laboratory

The effects of acute work stress and appraisal on psychobiological stress responses in a group office environment

Background The high prevalence of office stress and its detrimental health consequences are of concern to individuals, employers and society at large. Laboratory studies investigating office stress have mostly relied on data from participants that were tested individually on abstract tasks. In this study, we examined the effect of psychosocial office stress and work interruptions on the psychobiological stress response in a realistic but controlled group office environment. We also explored the role of cognitive stress appraisal as an underlying mechanism mediating the relationship between work stressors and the stress response. Methods and Materials Ninety participants (44 female; mean age 23.11 ± 3.80) were randomly assigned to either a control condition or one of two experimental conditions in which they were exposed to psychosocial stress with or without prior work interruptions in a realistic multi-participant laboratory setting. To induce psychosocial stress, we adapted the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups to an office environment. Throughout the experiment, we continuously monitored heart rate and heart rate variability. Participants repeatedly reported on their current mood, calmness, wakefulness and perceived stress and gave saliva samples to assess changes in salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase. Additionally, cognitive appraisal of the psychosocial stress test was evaluated. Results Our analyses revealed significant group differences for most outcomes during or immediately after the stress test (i.e., mood, calmness, perceived stress, salivary cortisol, heart rate, heart rate variability) and during recovery (i.e., salivary cortisol and heart rate). Interestingly, the condition that experienced work interruptions showed a higher increase of cortisol levels but appraised the stress test as less threatening than individuals that experienced only psychosocial stress. Exploratory mediation analyses revealed a blunted response in subjective measures of stress, which was partially explained by the differences in threat appraisal. Discussion The results showed that experimentally induced work stress led to significant responses of subjective measures of stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the autonomic nervous system. However, there appears to be a discrepancy between the psychological and biological responses to preceding work interruptions. Appraising psychosocial stress as less threatening but still as challenging could be an adaptive way of coping and reflect a state of engagement and eustress