Visual experience, visual field size, and the development of nonvisual sensitivity to the spatial structure of outdoor neighborhoods explored by walking.

Rieser, John J.; Hill, Everett W.; Talor, Charles R.; Bradfield, Anna; Rosen, Sandra

doi:10.1037/0096-3445.121.2.210

Cited by 96 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In a comparison of congenitally and adventitiously blind children on a task involving pointing to known locations while traveling over a known route, Dodds, Howarth, and Carter (1982) found that some of the congenitally blind children performed extremely poorly. In another study involving large-scale space, Rieser, Hill, Talor, Bradfield, and Rosen (1992) found that both congenitally blind subjects and those who had suffered large-field losses early in life exhibited poorer knowledge of the spatial disposition of landmarks within their communities than the other subject groups (sighted, adventitiously blind, and those suffering early acuity loss but not large-field loss). Similarly, Casey (1978) found that the congenitally blind were less accurate in creating tactual maps of their school campus than those blinded later in life.…”

Section: Role Of Visual Experience In Navigation Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability.

Loomis¹,

Klatzky²,

Golledge³

et al. 1993

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

562

515

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Blindfolded sighted, adventitiously blind, and congenitally blind subjects performed a set of navigation tasks. The more complex tasks involved spatial inference and included retracing a multisegment route in reverse, returning directly to an origin after being led over linear segments, and pointing to targets after locomotion. As a group, subjects responded systematically to route manipulations in the complex tasks, but performance was poor. Patterns of error and response latency are informative about the internal repredentation used; in particular, they do not support the hypothesis that only a representation of the origin of locomotion is maintained. The slight performance differences between groups varying in visual experience were neither large nor consistent across tasks. Results provide little indication that spatial competence strongly depends on prior visual experience.Effective navigation by humans involves a number of skills, including updating one's position and orientation during travel, forming and making use of representations of the environment through which travel takes place, and planning routes subject to various constraints (shortest distance, minimal travel time, maximum safety, etc.); see Rieser, Guth, and Hill (1982);Strelow (1985). Methods of updating position and orientation can be classified according to the type of information used: position, velocity, or acceleration. Position-based navigation (called pilotage or piloting) relies on external signals indicating the observer's position and orientation (Baker, 1981;Etienne, 1992); such signals would include visible or audible landmarks known to the traveler or those from electronic navigation aids. Velocity-

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Section: Role Of Visual Experience In Navigation Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability.

Loomis¹,

Klatzky²,

Golledge³

et al. 1993

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

562

515

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…We did not have sufficient information on visual-field status to compute correlations, but previous studies indicate that visual field loss is associated with increased errors in obstacle avoidance (Turano, et al, 2004). Field loss from eye disease (Rieser, Hill, Talor, Bradfield, & Rosen, 1992) or artificial restriction (Mason, 2002) also results in decreased wayfinding performance. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Building Layouts with Non-Geometric Visual Information: The Effects of Visual Impairment and Age

2008

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Previous studies suggest that humans rely on geometric visual information (hallway structure) rather than non-geometric visual information (e.g., doors, signs and lighting) for acquiring cognitive maps of novel indoor layouts. This study asked whether visual impairment and age affect reliance on nongeometric visual information for layout learning. We tested three groups of participants-younger (< 50 years) normally sighted, older (50-70 years) normally sighted, and low vision (people with heterogeneous forms of visual impairment ranging in age from 18-67). Participants learned target locations in building layouts using four presentation modes: a desktop virtual environment (VE) displaying only geometric cues (Sparse VE), a VE displaying both geometric and non-geometric cues (Photorealistic VE), a Map, and a Real building. Layout knowledge was assessed by map drawing and by asking participants to walk to specified targets in the real space. Results indicate that low-vision and older normally-sighted participants relied on additional non-geometric information to accurately learn layouts. In conclusion, visual impairment and age may result in reduced perceptual and/or memory processing that makes it difficult to learn layouts without non-geometric visual information.Keywords spatial navigation; wayfinding; visual impairment; low vision; aging; virtual environments; geometric visual information; cognitive maps; landmarks; environmental learning A typical building contains abundant visual features for aiding navigation, from geometric cues about the structural layout of the floor plan to cues unrelated to the layout geometry such as the presence of objects (e.g., pictures, water fountains) and image characteristics (e.g., textures, color and lighting). The current study addresses how two important participant characteristics, visual impairment and age, influence the types of visual information needed for developing an accurate mental representation of a novel virtual environment (VE). First, we ask whether rendering of purely geometrical information is sufficient for navigation in virtual buildings with visual impairment, and whether the addition of non-geometric visual features helps or hinders. Second, because the prevalence of visual impairment is much higher in old age, we ask whether age influences the use of geometric and non-geometric visual information.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amy A. Kalia, University of Minnesota Twin-Cities, Department of Psychology, N218 Elliott Hall, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455. Email: kali0080@umn.edu. NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptPerception. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2009 October 1. Published in final edited form as:Perception. 2008 ; 37(11): 1677-1699. doi:10.1068/p5915. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript Geometric and Non-geometric CuesIn this study, geometric cues refer to the spatial configuration of hallways, specifically their length and intersection connectivity. In F...

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“…The present study examined the abilities of adult blind observers who regularly use well-developed travel skills. Lockman et al (1981) and Rieser et al, (1992) provide direct empirical support for the importance of the role of travel skill where such skill was more varied in the subject populations studied. Loomis et al (in press) also report data from several navigation tasks, in which no differences were found between blind and sighted subjects.…”

Section: Comparability Of the Sighted To The Blindmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties of spatial representations: Data from sighted and blind subjects

Haber

Levin

et al. 1993

Perception & Psychophysics

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and REBECCA HOLLYFIELD Hines Veterans Administration Hospital, Hines, IllinoisFive questions concerning the properties of spatial representations are explored. (1) How accurately does a spatial representation correspond to the true scene? (2) If inaccurate, how does it differ? (3) Are representations of a familiar scene more accurate than those of an unfamiliar one? (4) Do representations of a scene currently in view differ from those retained in memory? (5) Do the representations ofthe blind have properties comparable to those of the sighted? Seven sighted and 7 highly mobile blind subjects, all familiar with a room, and 6 sighted subjects unfamiliar with it, were asked to estimate the absolute distances between 10 salient objects in the room. The 14 familiar subjects made their estimates twice: while they were in the room, and while they were remote from it. Regression analyses showed that the estimates of all subjects had strong metric properties, being linearly related to true distance, with a true zero point; and multidimensional scaling showed that all subjects produced distance estimates that could be scaled in two dimensions to closely match the actual locations of the objects. Familiarity had no effect. The effect of location of testing was the same for both the sighted and the blind: all subjects displayed better spatial knowledge when tested in the room; and all subjects underestimated true distance substantially when tested out ofthe room. The results showed no qualitative differences as a function of blindness, at least for these highly skilled blind travelers.A person's ability to move about in an environment depends on the successful integration of concurrent sensory information and an internal spatial representation of the environment (see Haber, 1985aHaber, , 1990, for a detailed review and discussion). Research on sensorily guided locomotion in normally sighted subjects has emphasized the first of these two components but has provided relatively little description or quantification of the second. Even the space science work on the development of guidance systems for autonomous robots has been disWe would like to thank the staff of the Blind Center of the Hines VA Hospital for their cooperation in permitting us to use their lobby, and for permission to disrupt their schedules, as well as take up some of their time. Partial support for this project was provided by two research contracts from the Veterans Administration Rehabilitation Research and Development Research Program (C448-R and C995-PA) to the Rehabilitation Research and Development Center at Hines VA Hospital, and through contracts from Hines VA Hospital to the University of Illinois, Chicago. Partial support was also provided by a research grant from the National Eye Institute (EY07801) to the first two authors. We would like to thank Kevin Novak, James Gramata, Deirdre McConathy, Rebecca Burzette, Richard Marcantonio, and Lynn Ostergren for their assistance and for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. We also benefited from...

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Visual experience, visual field size, and the development of nonvisual sensitivity to the spatial structure of outdoor neighborhoods explored by walking.

Cited by 96 publications

References 44 publications

Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability.

Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability.

Learning Building Layouts with Non-Geometric Visual Information: The Effects of Visual Impairment and Age

Properties of spatial representations: Data from sighted and blind subjects

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