Simulating Navigation With Virtual 3d Geovisualizations – A Focus on Memory Related Factors

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The use of virtual environments (VE) for navigation-related studies, such as spatial cognition and path retrieval has been widely adopted in cognitive psychology and related fields. What motivates the use of VEs for such studies is that, as opposed to real-world, we can control for the confounding variables in simulated VEs. When simulating a geographic environment as a virtual world with the intention to train navigational memory in humans, an effective and efficient visual design is important to facilitate the amount of recall. However, it is not yet clear what amount of information should be included in such visual designs intended to facilitate remembering: there can be too little or too much of it. Besides the amount of information or level of detail, the types of visual features ('elements' in a visual scene) that should be included in the representations to create memorable scenes and paths must be defined. We analyzed the literature in cognitive psychology, geovisualization and information visualization, and identified the key factors for studying and evaluating geovisualization designs for their function to support and strengthen human navigational memory. The key factors we identified are: i) the individual abilities and age of the users, ii) the level of realism (LOR) included in the representations and iii) the context in which the navigation is performed, thus specific tasks within a case scenario. Here we present a concise literature review and our conceptual development for follow-up experiments.

A comparison of the performance on extrinsic and intrinsic cartographic visualizations through correctness, response time and cognitive processing

“…A comparison of the performance of the "extrinsic" and "intrinsic" verified the greater effectiveness and efficiency of extrinsic visualization. The results also showed that the type of task (i.e., whether it concerned a single variable or two variables) had a definitive effect on performance, which is in accordance with the statement [e.g., 7,6] that the performance of map work partly depends on whether the given type of visualization is suitable for the task at hand.…”

“…The same data can be represented by different cartographic visualization methods. An unsuitable method not only reduces performance but also places various requirements which correspond to the type of cartographic visualization on different types of users and tasks [6,7]. User characteristics (such as cartographic skills, [8,9]) and the type of task [10,11] must therefore be considered when we conduct empirical studies on the performance of alternative visualizations.…”

When the display matters: A multifaceted perspective on 3D geovisualizations

“…Deeper insight into how can be human performance influenced by particular UI setting in cartographic tasks was discussed by Lokka and Coltekin [56]. Our results would refer specifically to altitude identification tasks in analogical interactive geovisualizations with particular focus on human perception issues.…”

ON THE USABILITY AND USEFULNESS OF 3D (GEO)VISUALIZATIONS – A FOCUS ON VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENTS

“…For example, some studies suggest that 'human recognizable' elements in a visualization might be helpful in how well we remember them (Borkin et al, 2013), which encourages us to further study the benefits of (photo)realistic 3D visualizations such as VEs. Of course, when we talk of memory, individual and group differences (as mentioned above) are especially important, because specific populations (e.g., based on age, spatial ability, and professional experience) might have different strategies and memory capacities (Lokka & Çöltekin, 2016).…”