Among the environmental stimuli that can guide navigation in space, most attention has been dedicated to visual information. The process of determining where you are and which direction you are facing (called reorientation) has been extensively examined by providing the navigator with two sources of information-typically the shape of the environment and its features-with an interest in the extent to which they are used. Similar questions with non-visual cues are lacking. Here, blindfolded sighted participants had to learn the location of a target in a real-world, circular search space. In Experiment 1, two ecologically relevant non-visual cues were provided: the slope of the floor and an array of two identical auditory landmarks. Slope successfully guided behaviour, suggesting that proprioceptive/kinesthetic access is sufficient to navigate on a slanted environment. However, despite the fact that participants could localise the auditory sources, this information was not encoded. In Experiment 2, the auditory cue was made more useful for the task because it had greater predictive value and there were no competing spatial cues. Nonetheless, again, the auditory landmark was not encoded. Finally, in Experiment 3, after being prompted, participants were able to reorient by using the auditory landmark. Overall, participants failed to spontaneously rely on the auditory cue, regardless of how informative it was.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.