| |
Abstract:
Abstract: How do observers learn to navigate in complex
environments? Using virtual reality we addressed: 1) Whether
subjects can rely on non-visual information when visual landmarks
are unreliable; 2) Whether, when they do use landmarks, subjects
weight local or global landmarks more heavily. Subjects either
walked or moved via joystick through a tunnel, into an arena
surrounded by equally spaced white poles, one of which was the
target pole. The task was to go to the target pole (marked by color
during training, unmarked during test) which remained in the same
location throughout the experiment. The environment also contained
three distinct boxes inside the arena (local landmarks) and three
larger ones outside the arena (global landmarks). On each trial,
different combinations of these objects were shifted 6deg., 12deg.,
or 18deg. to the right or left of their original location. Although
subjects were warned that the boxes could move, results indicate
that subjects relied on them as landmarks to navigate to the target
pole. Moreover, subjects relied more on local landmarks than on
global landmarks. In a second study using only local landmarks,
subjects placed the most weight on a single object, the one closest
to the target pole. Further studies compared these findings to
performance in a condition where no landmarks were available and a
condition in which the visual appearance of the landmarks was
manipulated.
|
