Learning a Path from Real Navigation: The Advantage of Initial View, Cardinal North and Visuo-Spatial Ability

Abstract

Background: Spatial cognition research strives to maximize conditions favoring environment representation. This study examined how initial (egocentric) navigation headings interact with allocentric references in terms of world-based information (such as cardinal points) in forming environment representations. The role of individual visuo-spatial factors was also examined. Method: Ninety-one undergraduates took an unfamiliar path in two learning conditions, 46 walked from cardinal south to north (SN learning), and 45 walked from cardinal north to south (NS learning). Path recall was tested with SN and NS pointing tasks. Perspective-taking ability and self-reported sense of direction were also assessed. Results: Linear models showed a better performance for SN learning and SN pointing than for NS learning and NS pointing. The learning condition x pointing interaction proved SN pointing more accurate than NS pointing after SN learning, while SN and NS pointing accuracy was similar after NS learning. Perspective-taking ability supported pointing accuracy. Conclusions: These results indicate that initial heading aligned with cardinal north prompt a north-oriented representation. No clear orientation of the representation emerges when the initial heading is aligned with cardinal south. Environment representations are supported by individual perspective-taking ability. These findings offer new insight on the environmental and individual factors facilitating environment representations acquired from navigation.

Spatial Navigation and Visuospatial Strategies in Typical and Atypical Aging

“…The CN group was more educated that the aMCI and mild AD dementia groups (both p ≤ 0.028). There were more women in the CN and mild AD dementia groups than in the aMCI group (71.8% and 63.6% vs. 44.0%) [χ 2 (2) = 43.21, p = 0.002]. As expected, the CN group had higher MMSE scores (both p < 0.001) and showed better cognitive performance (both p ≤ 0.025) than the aMCI and mild AD dementia groups.…”

“…One of them is route learning (i.e., response learning), which entails creating a sequence of body movements (e.g., remembering right, left, right) or creating a series of stimulus–response associations when remembering associations of direction change with a specific landmark (e.g., “Turn left at the shop”) [ 1 ]. This strategy is referred to as egocentric navigation and is primarily based on self-motion perception but can also exploit environmental cues by creating self-to-object relations [ 2 ]. Route learning is primarily supported by the parietal cortex and the caudate nucleus [ 3 ].…”

“…A more flexible navigation strategy is wayfinding (i.e., place learning) where a navigator creates a mental representation (i.e., “cognitive map”) of the environment based on landmarks that are used as orientation cues. This entails the recognition of object-to-object relationships, and this strategy is referred to as allocentric navigation [ 2 ]. Wayfinding is primarily supported by the hippocampus and related medial temporal lobe structures [ 4 ].…”

“…While the environment is typically perceived and encoded from the navigator’s perspective during navigation, successful navigation requires that the travelled route is recalled from a different direction, for example, when retracing a route (i.e., when navigating from the destination back to the starting place of a route). The flexibility to imagine scenes and environments from different viewpoints is referred to as perspective taking [ 2 ]. Perspective taking is supported by the parietal and temporal cortex [ 3 ].…”

Impact of a Multiobject-directed Spatial Orientation Ability on Air Traffic Conflict Detection Performance in Free Route Airspace

“…20 These aforementioned SOTs showed that alternative types of SOTs involving a wider array of objects and presenting higher orders of task complexity were absent in the ATM domain. This could be explained by the fact it has taken almost two decades of intensive psychometric research, involving large samples of participants, to provide strong support for the reliability and validity of SOTs featuring multiple objects (or landmarks) [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][35][36][37][38][39] . In general, these SOTs require participants to execute pointing responses toward multiple objects (or landmarks) arranged in an array with reference to an initial heading direction [19][20][21][22][23][24]39 .…”