Title:	Learning of Spatial Properties of a Large-Scale Virtual City With an Interactive Map
Authors:	König, Sabine U. Clay, Viviane Nolte, Debora Duesberg, Laura Kuske, Nicolas König, Peter
ORCID of the author:	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5981-2025 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3654-5267
Abstract:	To become acquainted with large-scale environments such as cities people combine direct experience and indirect sources such as maps. To ascertain which type of spatial knowledge is acquired by which source is difficult to evaluate. Using virtual reality enables the possibility to investigate whether knowledge is learned by direct experience or the use of a map differentially. Therefore, we designed a large virtual city, comprised of over 200 houses, and evaluated spatial knowledge acquisition after city exploration with an interactive map following one and three 30-min exploration sessions. We tested subjects’ knowledge of the orientation of houses facing directions toward cardinal north, of orientations of houses facing directions relative to each other and pointing from one house to another. Our results revealed that increased familiarity after extended exploration with the map improved task accuracy. Further, it revealed task differences, caused mainly by a better accuracy in the relative orientation task than the pointing task. Time for cognitive reasoning improved overall task accuracy. Learning with our VR city map revealed an absence of distance effect, an alignment effect of tested house orientation toward map north and an angular difference effect between tested stimuli. Self-reported knowledge of cardinal directions learned in the real environment was positively correlated with task accuracy testing houses orientations toward cardinal north. Overall, our results suggest that participants learned spatial information that is directly available in the interactive map, while a spatial task that needed integration of learned knowledge stayed at lower accuracy levels.
Citations:	Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13:240, 2019
URL:	https://osnadocs.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-202004202959
Subject Keywords:	spatial memory; navigation; virtual reality; interactive city map; spatial cognition
Issue Date:	10-Jul-2019
License name:	Attribution 4.0 International
License url:	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Type of publication:	Einzelbeitrag in einer wissenschaftlichen Zeitschrift [article]
Appears in Collections:	FB08 - Hochschulschriften Open-Access-Publikationsfonds

This item is licensed under a Creative Commons License