The influence of audio, tactile, and audio-tactile landmarks on route learning in virtual environments

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterAcademic

Abstract

People travel to their destinations every day, but it can be especially tricky to remember your exact route when navigating unfamiliar
environments. In this study, we investigated the influence of auditory, haptic, and auditory-haptic landmarks on route learning ability. We
hypothesized that route learning is easier when there are landmarks, and specifically when routes contain audio-haptic compared to unisensory
landmarks. To investigate this, we used a videogame-like task in which participants (N = 124) learned routes from a first-person perspective
through a virtual maze with a uniform visual look. We presented either auditory, haptic, auditory-haptic (a congruent combination of the two)
cues, or no additional cues at decision points along the routes. Participants were asked to walk the exact same routes back to the starting points,
as quickly as possible. Sixty-two percent of the participants were able to find their way back in all four levels, meaning 38 percent indicated they
were lost in at least one of the environments. Finish times and time spent outside the route were similar for all landmark types. These findings
suggest that navigating in unfamiliar environments lacking visual landmarks is quite difficult and that the current auditory or haptic landmarks
were not particularly helpful.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Event19th NVP Dutch Society for Brain and Cognition Winter Conference - Egmond aan Zee, Netherlands
Duration: 14 Dec 202316 Dec 2023

Conference

Conference19th NVP Dutch Society for Brain and Cognition Winter Conference
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityEgmond aan Zee
Period14/12/2316/12/23

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The influence of audio, tactile, and audio-tactile landmarks on route learning in virtual environments'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this