The shape of human navigation: How environmental geometry is used in maintenance of spatial orientation

The role of environmental geometry in maintaining spatial orientation was measured in immersive virtual reality using a spatial updating task (requiring maintenance of orientation during locomotion) within rooms varying in rotational symmetry (the number of room orientations providing the same persp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cognition 2008-11, Vol.109 (2), p.281-286
Main Authors: Kelly, Jonathan W., McNamara, Timothy P., Bodenheimer, Bobby, Carr, Thomas H., Rieser, John J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activity levels. Psychomotricity
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition
Computer Graphics
Environment
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Geometric Concepts
Geometry
Human environment
Humans
Maintenance
Male
Navigation
Orientation
Orientation - physiology
Path integration
Photic Stimulation
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychomotor activities
Reorientation
Rotation
Space Perception - physiology
Spatial Ability
Spatial analysis
Spatial cognition
Spatial memory
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
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Summary:The role of environmental geometry in maintaining spatial orientation was measured in immersive virtual reality using a spatial updating task (requiring maintenance of orientation during locomotion) within rooms varying in rotational symmetry (the number of room orientations providing the same perspective). Spatial updating was equally good in trapezoidal, rectangular and square rooms (one-fold, two-fold and four-fold rotationally symmetric, respectively) but worse in a circular room (∞-fold rotationally symmetric). This contrasts with reorientation performance, which was incrementally impaired by increasing rotational symmetry. Spatial updating performance in a shape-changing room (containing visible corners and flat surfaces, but changing its shape over time) was no better than performance in a circular room, indicating that superior spatial updating performance in angular environments was due to remembered room shape, rather than improved self-motion perception in the presence of visible corners and flat surfaces.
ISSN:0010-0277
1873-7838
DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.001