The acquisition of survey knowledge for local and global landmark configurations under time pressure

The influence of stress states on cognition is widely recognized. However, the manner in which stress affects survey knowledge acquisition is still unresolved. For the present study, we investigated whether survey knowledge acquisition during a stressful task (i.e., under time pressure) is more accurate for the mental representation of global or local landmarks. Participants navigated through virtual cities with a navigation aid and explicit learning instructions for different landmark configurations. Participants’ judgments of relative direction (JRDs) suggest that global landmark configurations were not represented more accurately than local landmark configurations and that survey knowledge acquisition was not impaired under time pressure. In contrast to prior findings, our results indicate the limitations of the utility of global landmarks for spatial knowledge acquisition.     

Collaborative Navigation in an Unfamiliar Environment with People Having Different Spatial Aptitudes

This study addressed the issue of collaborative navigation by examining the types of information communicated in the processes of direction giving and receiving between people who guided each other simultaneously to a destination over the cell phone in a novel environment. When paired with a partner whose sense of direction differed greatly from their own, people found the collaboration difficult and took a longer time to verbally direct the partner to the destination. Landmarks that people used in giving navigational instructions differed depending on sense of direction. People with a good sense of direction adjusted route directions to their partners' wayfinding ability. Results from a detailed qualitative analysis of participants' verbal protocols and implications for personalized navigation tools are discussed.     

Wayfinding Performance in and the Spatial Knowledge of a Color-coded Building for Adults and Children

The study reported here investigates the effect color has on the performance in a wayfinding task,the wayfinding strategies used and the acquisition of survey knowledge of a total of sixty participants: twenty second graders,sixth graders, and adults each. All participants had to find their way to a goal in a virtual environment with either a colored or a gray ground. After that,they had to find the shortest way from the start position to the goal in two consecutive trials,to draw a sketch map of the maze,and to mark the position of the goal figure in an overview of the maze. The results showed that color helped all participants to improve their performance in the wayfinding task, influenced the use of some wayfinding strategies but did not improve the acquisition of survey knowledge. Furthermore, there was a developmental achievement from second graders to adults. The results implicate firstly that children and adults similarly rely on the structuring of space through color when navigating through an unfamiliar large-scale environment,and secondly that there is a dissociation between wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge.     

Taxonomy of Human Wayfinding Tasks: A Knowledge-Based Approach

Abstract

Although the term “Wayfinding” has been defined by several authors, it subsumes a whole set of tasks that involve different cognitive processes, drawing on different cognitive components. Research on wayfinding has been conducted with different paradigms using a variety of wayfinding tasks. This makes it difficult to compare the results and implications of many studies. A systematic classification is needed in order to determine and investigate the cognitive processes and structural components of how humans solve wayfinding problems. Current classifications of wayfinding distinguish tasks on a rather coarse level or do not take the navigator's knowledge, a key factor in wayfinding, into account. We present an extended taxonomy of wayfinding that distinguishes tasks by external constraints as well as by the level of spatial knowledge that is available to the navigator. The taxonomy will help to decrease ambiguity of wayfinding tasks and it will facilitate understanding of the differentiated demands a navigator faces when solving wayfinding problems.     

Learning Spatial Localization: From Rat Studies to Computational Models of the Hippocampus

In his landmark article, Richard Morris (1981) introduced a set of rat experiments intended “to demonstrate that rats can rapidly learn to locate an object that they can never see, hear, or smell provided it remains in a fixed spatial location relative to distal room cues” (p. 239). These experimental studies have greatly impacted our understanding of rat spatial cognition. In this article, we address a spatial cognition model primarily based on hippocampus place cell computation where we extend the prior Barrera–Weitzenfeld model (2008) intended to allow navigation in mazes containing corridors. The current work extends beyond the limitations of corridors to enable navigation in open arenas where a rat may move in any direction at any time. The extended work reproduces Morris's rat experiments through virtual rats that search for a hidden platform using visual cues in a circular open maze analogous to the Morris water maze experiments. We show results with virtual rats comparing them to Morris's original studies with rats.     

An Analysis of the Navigation Metaphor—And Why It Works for the World Wide Web

People use spatial metaphors when they talk about activities on the World Wide Web, such as navigating the Web, reaching one's goal, visiting a Web site, or moving back to a previous Web page. These expressions are mappings from the physical world to an application domain. We analyze why Web users conceptualize clicking on a sequence of Web links as navigation. The semantics of an object or an activity in its source domain can be defined over its behavior with a set of axioms. We propose that these axioms must also be satisfied in the target domain for an object or activity to yield a sound metaphor. We use a first-order algebraic specification language to define the semantics of navigation in the real world as a set of axioms, specify a Web navigating agent as algebra, and demonstrate that there exists a morphism between both specifications, which means that the Web agent behaves according to the set of wayfinding axioms. This suggested method is another step towards a formally grounded explanation of metaphorical mappings.     

Learning Routes from Visualizations for Indoor Wayfinding: Presentation Modes and Individual Differences

Abstract

Participants (N = 78) studied a visualization of a route through a complex building and walked that route in the real building without further assistance. Erroneous turns on the route as well as indicators of uncertainty such as hesitations were assessed. Three types of route visualizations were compared: (1) an allocentric, map-based visualization with the route indicated in floor maps, (2) an ordered sequence of pictures of decision points shown from the egocentric perspective, and (3) an animation showing a virtual walk of the route from the egocentric perspective. In addition to the experimental variation, gender differences, differences in visual-spatial abilities and differences in self-reported wayfinding strategies were considered as predictor variables. Wayfinding performance did not differ between allocentric (map) and egocentric (decision point pictures and animation) visualizations. However, wayfinding performance was better with animated than with static egocentric visualizations. Individual differences in the ability to encode visual-spatial information from the visualization played a critical role for route learning. Self-reported sense of direction related to egocentric wayfinding strategies also predicted wayfinding performance. Gender differences were attributable to differences in visual-spatial abilities and egocentric wayfinding strategies. Interactions between visualizations and individual differences were not found. It is concluded that animations of virtual walks are suitable to convey route information in complex buildings. Successful acquisition of route knowledge from maps is possible but might depend on the comprehensibility of the structure of the building.