Improved Spatial Knowledge Acquisition through Sensory Augmentation

Abstract

Sensory augmentation provides novel opportunities to broaden our knowledge of human perception through external sensors that record and transmit information beyond natural perception. To assess whether such augmented senses affect the acquisition of spatial knowledge during navigation, we trained a group of 27 participants for six weeks with an augmented sense for cardinal directions called the feelSpace belt. Then, we recruited a control group that did not receive the augmented sense and the corresponding training. All 53 participants first explored the Westbrook virtual reality environment for two and a half hours spread over five sessions before assessing their spatial knowledge in four immersive virtual reality tasks measuring cardinal, route, and survey knowledge. We found that the belt group acquired significantly more accurate cardinal and survey knowledge, which was measured in pointing accuracy, distance, and rotation estimates. Interestingly, the augmented sense also positively affected route knowledge, although to a lesser degree. Finally, the belt group reported a significant increase in the use of spatial strategies after training, while the groups’ ratings were comparable at baseline. The results suggest that six weeks of training with the feelSpace belt led to improved survey and route knowledge acquisition. Moreover, the findings of our study could inform the development of assistive technologies for individuals with visual or navigational impairments, which may lead to enhanced navigation skills and quality of life.

The Three Stages of Learning to Master a Sensory Augmentation Device: Activation - Acquisition - Integration

“…After the training period, while the participants continued to use the belt, an elaborate behavioral experiment followed in which we assessed the participants' spatial knowledge acquisition compared with a control group. The results of these measurements after the training period are published in Schmidt et al (11). Here, we will focus on the previously unpublished data recorded during the training period.…”

“…The specific context and what kind of augmented sensory information is processed and learned is also important to consider when studying the acquisition of a novel sense, as it would likely affect the creation of SMCs. Previous research showed qualitative and quantitative differences in how well individuals can process information from the augmented modality (11,12). A fairly direct application to study the effect of obtaining a novel sense is the field of space perception.…”

“…Second, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a 'path integration' task revealed different activations in sensorimotor and higher-level motor brain areas. Schmidt and colleagues (11) used a custom-made VR environment, a larger sample size, and a large variety of spatial tasks performed directly within the VR environment. The results showed a significant increase in route and survey knowledge after six weeks of training for the belt group as opposed to the control group.…”

The Virtual Navigation Toolbox: Providing tools for virtual navigation experiments

“…[35,45], but cf. [46] for use of a 'virtual wand' to enable 3D-pointing in VR and [47] for a virtual building placement task).…”

Improved spatial knowledge acquisition through sensory augmentation

“…All data and analysis scripts are available at OSF (131). The repository additionally contains the project documentation and the VR exploration and VR task assessment Builds for replication or incorporation in novel experiments.…”