Using desktop virtual environments to investigate the role of landmarks

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Abstract

Recent research on spatial cognition has used computer-simulated three dimensional environments to create appropriate laboratory settings when trying to examine processes of spatial orientation. One way to evaluate “virtual environments” is to replicate results of experiments which were originally conducted in traditional laboratory or in real world settings. The experiment which is reported here investigates the role of landmarks when acquiring route knowledge in a system of paths. The design follows an earlier experiment by Cohen and Schuepfer [Child development 31 (1980) 1065]. It can be shown, that landmarks play an important role in the system of paths: landmarks which are combined with turns towards the destination are more likely to become strategic nodes in the network than those which are not connected. Beside these results, a software designed to build appropriate environments is shown and its usability is demonstrated. The use of virtual environments provides both economical and flexible design of realistic experimental settings, as well as a valide recording of behavior.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 10 students (average age: 25.85 years) at the Gerhard-Mercator-University in Duisburg, Germany.

Materials

The experiment was conducted on a PC with Superscape's VRT 4.00 software. A maze was programmed that corresponded to the system of paths Cohen and Schuepfer (1980) used in their study. The maze was presented to participants on a 17 inch screen. They “walked” through the maze by using a joystick. Fig. 1 presents a hardcopy of a bird's eye view of the maze.

The maze consisted of six

Results

The path participants took was recorded for analysis. The arrow trace from the bird's eye view of the maze shows whenever they strayed from the way to the destination (Fig. 3)

Table 1 shows the number of learning trials until the criterion was reached and the number of wrong turns per trial (errors) for the different conditions. Error-free trials were not used in computing these performance parameters.

The statistic shows that the maze is traveled more often when it did not contain landmarks than

Discussion

Cohen and Schuepfer's (1980) findings concerning the relevance of landmarks in learning a route, could be replicated even with a small sample size in a virtual environment on a mid-range computer system. Whereas Cohen and Schuepfer (1980) obtained their results with a design that appears extraordinarily artificial and complex, the participants in this study could actively navigate. Landmarks do indeed aid orientation when finding the way, and a route with landmarks is learned faster than one

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Frank P. Schulte for his help writing this manuscript.

Petra Jansen-Osmann holds a Master's Degree in Biological and Social Anthropology and Psychology from Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg. She is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. Her research is concerned with human spatial cognition and behavior in natural and virtual environments and motor development.

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Petra Jansen-Osmann holds a Master's Degree in Biological and Social Anthropology and Psychology from Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz and a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg. She is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Experimental Psychology at Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany. Her research is concerned with human spatial cognition and behavior in natural and virtual environments and motor development.

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