Using route and survey information to generate cognitive maps: differences between normally sighted and visually impaired individuals

Abstract

Visually impaired people (VIP) have to rely on different information to generate a cognitive map of their environment than normally sighted people. This study explored the extent to which a cognitive map could be generated by auditory information of route-type and survey-type descriptions of a fictitious environment. A total of 27 visually impaired and 28 normally sighted participants listened to either a survey-type or a route-type description of a fictitious zoo. They then answered both route-type and survey-type questions. This listening/question-and-answer sequence was repeated twice (total n ¼ 3). The visually impaired participants showed no difference in error frequency between the two description types, while the normally sighted individuals performed better after listening to the survey-type description. In addition, the learning curve of the normally sighted individuals was steeper than that of the visually impaired and they made fewer errors. The error scores indicated two subgroups in both the normally sighted and the visually impaired groups. These two groups, the 'good' learners and the 'poor' learners, showed marked differences in generating a cognitive map from auditory descriptions of an environment.

A comparative study of multimodal digital map interface designs for blind users

“…An analysis of the mental demand scores between the 2 interfaces demonstrates there is a statistically significant difference between them (p = 0.031). This supports the propositions of other researchers (Golledge, 1993;Steyvers, 2009;Delogu et al, 2010) that spatial cognition is a demanding cognitive process and corresponds to the findings of other research (Stevens and Edwards, 1996;Stevens, 1996).…”

Do modes of transportation and GPS affect cognitive maps of Londoners?

“…Meanwhile, GPS errors or 'seams' which limits the practicality of this technology and can cause problems in navigation should also be considered (Willis, 2005). Other projects to help people to experience the real world around them are constantly evolving, such as investigating the spatial comprehension of visually impaired and blind individuals (Steyvers and Kooijman, 2009;Kitchin et al, 1997) or their way-finding abilities (Blades et al, 2002), designing GPS devices to help them find their way with a verbal guide (Gaunet, 2006) or using touch screens inside cars for visually impaired people (Burnett and Porter, 2001). Designing models for robots to do way-finding tasks or 'Augmented Reality' (AR) projects to supplement reality with the creation of a synthetic environment superimposed with virtual images of the environment (Azuma, 1997) or attempts to compare, study and improve the navigation aids including active and passive ones like GPS, also belong to the other groups of recent studies (Li et al, 2013).…”

Seeing the Environment from the Eye of Blinds

“…Nonetheless, blinds are able to perform cognitive-mapping tasks, that is they can learn mutual spatial relations between locations in the environment in order to reach destinations. Thus, it appears that blinds are able to generate a cognitive map from non-visual sequential information sources (Steyvers and Kooijman, 2009).…”