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

Abstract

Route learning is a common navigation task affected by cognitive aging. Here we present a novel experimental paradigm to investigate whether age-related declines in executive control of attention contributes to route learning deficits. A young and an older participant group was repeatedly presented with a route through a virtual maze comprised of 12 decision points (DP) and non-decision points (non-DP). To investigate attentional engagement with the route learning task, participants had to respond to auditory probes at both DP and non-DP. Route knowledge was assessed by showing participants screenshots or landmarks from DPs and non-DPs and asking them to indicate the movement direction required to continue the route. Results demonstrate better performance for DPs than for non-DPs and slower responses to auditory probes at DPs compared to non-DPs. As expected we found slower route learning and slower responses to the auditory probes in the older participant group. Interestingly, differences in response times to the auditory probes between DPs and non-DPs can predict the success of route learning in both age groups and may explain slower knowledge acquisition in the older participant group.

Are age-related deficits in route learning related to control of visual attention?

“…Older adults performed worse than younger adults on both the Direction Test and the Order Test, which is consistent with earlier navigation studies (Hartmeyer et al, 2017;Head & Isom, 2010;. Difficulty in recalling directions at intersections for older adults suggests age-related deficits in place-response associations (see Strickrodt, O'Malley & Wiener, 2015).…”

“…Participants were instructed to learn the route so that they would be able to reproduce it on their own. At the same time, we administered an auditory probe task as used in Allen and Kirasic (2003) and Hartmeyer et al (2017): whilst the participants were watching the video of the route, auditory stimuli (a beep: 100 ms, square wave 1000 Hz) were presented, to which participants had to respond via key press as fast as possible. Twenty-four auditory probes were presented along the route, with their locations balanced evenly across decision points and non-decision points.…”

“…Moreover, we expected longer response times to the auditory probe at decision points vs. non-decision points in the younger participant group (c.f. Hartmeyer et al, 2017). If older adults were impaired in their ability to modulate engagement of attention during route learning in an information-rich environment, we expected a reduced difference in response times to the auditory probe at decision points vs. non-decision points as compared to the response time difference in younger adults.…”

“…In the present study, we used a paradigm similar to that of Hartmeyer et al (2017), but we used a more visually complex environment and we tracked participants' gaze behaviour. Our main research questions were: (1) Will previous attentional engagement findings from an auditory probe task be replicated in a complex environment?…”

Differential brain activity in visuo-perceptual regions during landmark-based navigation in young and healthy older adults

“…Geometric cues encompass all the elements that are intrinsic to and continuous with the external limits of a space; these include the overall layout, boundaries of the environment, wall lengths, and angle dimensions (Cheng and Newcombe, 2005; Tommasi et al, 2012; Giocomo, 2016). Several studies in virtual environments have emphasized the idea that old age hinders the ability to use landmark information for navigation (Picucci et al, 2009; Harris et al, 2012; Wiener et al, 2012; Zhong and Moffat, 2016; Hartmeyer et al, 2017). Bécu and colleagues (2020) recently elaborated on such results and unveiled a specific age-related deficit for landmark-based compared with geometry-based navigation in ecological settings.…”