Human place and response learning: navigation strategy selection, pupil size and gaze behavior

Abstract

In this study, we examined the cognitive processes and ocular behavior associated with on-going navigation strategy choice using a route learning paradigm that distinguishes between three different wayfinding strategies: an allocentric place strategy, and the egocentric associative cue and beacon response strategies. Participants approached intersections of a known route from a variety of directions, and were asked to indicate the direction in which the original route continued. Their responses in a subset of these test trials allowed the assessment of strategy choice over the course of six experimental blocks. The behavioral data revealed an initial maladaptive bias for a beacon response strategy, with shifts in favour of the optimal configuration place strategy occurring over the course of the experiment. Response time analysis suggests that the configuration strategy relied on spatial transformations applied to a viewpoint-dependent spatial representation, rather than direct access to an allocentric representation. Furthermore, pupillary measures reflected the employment of place and response strategies throughout the experiment, with increasing use of the more cognitively demanding configuration strategy associated with increases in pupil dilation. During test trials in which known intersections were approached from different directions, visual attention was directed to the landmark encoded during learning as well as the intended movement direction. Interestingly, the encoded landmark did not differ between the three navigation strategies, which is discussed in the context of initial strategy choice and the parallel acquisition of place and response knowledge.

Finding the Return Path: Landmark Position Effects and the Influence of Perspective

“…It allows us to move towards a landmark and thus spares us encoding associated directions. The importance of location D for route learning could also be shown in recent eye-tracking studies (de Condappa and Wiener, 2016). …”

The Effects of Attentional Engagement on Route Learning Performance in a Virtual Environment: An Aging Study

“…This allowed for improved control of environmental cues and spatial features. Also, instead of probing route knowledge by asking participants to judge inter-location distances (Allen and Kirasic, 2003), we used a more traditional measure of route knowledge, i.e., we presented participants with pictures of landmarks or spatial situations and asked them to indicate the direction in which the route continued (Wiener et al, 2013; Strickrodt et al, 2015; de Condappa and Wiener, 2016). …”

Spatial navigation from same and different directions: The role of executive functions, memory and attention in adults with autism spectrum disorder

“…Lind et al [] previously found support for the disturbance of the default network in ASD by reporting that difficulties in spatial navigation were related to problems in ToM and episodic memory. Difficulties in perspective‐taking in ASD [Hamilton, de, Brindley, & Frith, ; Rehfeldt, Dillen, Ziomek, & Kowalchuk, ] may have also played a role in the difficulties with different‐direction trials in the current study, as De Condappa and Wiener [] recently suggested, but to shed more light on these issues is a task for future research.…”