Landmarks: A solution for spatial navigation and memory experiments in virtual reality

• Published in: Behavior research methods 2021-06, Vol.53 (3), p.1046-1059
• Main Authors: Starrett, Michael J., McAvan, Andrew S., Huffman, Derek J., Stokes, Jared D., Kyle, Colin T., Smuda, Dana N., Kolarik, Branden S., Laczko, Jason, Ekstrom, Arne D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cognition; Cognitive Psychology; Computer applications; Experiments; Memory; Navigation behavior; Psychology; Spatial memory; Virtual reality
• ISSN: 1554-3528; 1554-351X; 1554-3528
• DOI: 10.3758/s13428-020-01481-6

Research into the behavioral and neural correlates of spatial cognition and navigation has benefited greatly from recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technology. Devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs) and omnidirectional treadmills provide research participants with access to a more complete range of body-based cues, which facilitate the naturalistic study of learning and memory in three-dimensional (3D) spaces. One limitation to using these technologies for research applications is that they almost ubiquitously require integration with video game development platforms, also known as game engines. While powerful, game engines do not provide an intrinsic framework for experimental design and require at least a working proficiency with the software and any associated programming languages or integrated development environments (IDEs). Here, we present a new asset package, called Landmarks, for designing and building 3D navigation experiments in the Unity game engine. Landmarks combines the ease of building drag-and-drop experiments using no code, with the flexibility of allowing users to modify existing aspects, create new content, and even contribute their work to the open-source repository via GitHub, if they so choose. Landmarks is actively maintained and is supplemented by a wiki with resources for users including links, tutorials, videos, and more. We compare several alternatives to Landmarks for building navigation experiments and 3D experiments more generally, provide an overview of the package and its structure in the context of the Unity game engine, and discuss benefits relating to the ongoing and future development of Landmarks.