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.

On the basis of embodied/-enacted theories of the mind, investigations of spatial cognition related to real world environments have become current research interests. How this perspective relates to acquiring spatial knowledge not by active exploration, but through map learning, however, remains unresolved. Therefore, we designed a large virtual city comprised of over 200 houses, suitable for active exploration or spatial learning based on a map. Here, we report our results after single and repeated 30-minute training sessions using an interactive city map. We tested subjects' knowledge of the orientation of houses towards cardinal north and of two houses relative to each other and the locations of two houses towards each other in a pointing task. Our results revealed that a single training session was sufficient to repeatedly view the majority of houses covering a large area of the city. However, repeated training sessions were necessary to improve the performance level and reveal significant differences between tasks. In contrast to a previous study in a real world city, performance in the two orientation tasks was better than in the pointing task. The lack of distance and the lack of angular difference effects onto task performance suggest the use of a global reference frame.Performance was positively correlated with a self-report on spatial abilities (FRS) in the absolute orientation and pointing task but not the relative orientation task. Overall, our results suggest that training with an interactive city map enhances abstract knowledge, not directly available from an embodied perspective.