Looking at the map – or navigating in a virtual city interaction of visuospatial display and spatial strategies in VR

Abstract

To study geo-visualization processes a Cognitive Cartography Lab was established at Eötvös University, and the "Virtual Tourist" experiment was designed for the better understanding of actual map use during navigation. In this paper we present some preliminary results of the experiment. We explored the use of a static, north-oriented city map during navigation in an interactive, 3D town. Participants explored the virtual environment or followed verbal instructions before they completed spatial tasks. Their spatial behavior, verbal reactions were recorded, and also eye tracking data from 64 participants was collected. The experiment was designed by a multidisciplinary research group, including students of Eötvös Loránd University.

Linguistic and Behaviour Interaction Analysis within Cognitive Infocommunications

“…In the manner that we have addressed emotion, gesture, language and thought as coginfocom technologies, others have explored other representational systems humans have adopted for reasoning, in particular, maps, for spatial reasoning [11], [12]. Intersections are addressed as well, for example, language use in scenarios requiring communication about spatial directions [13], [14], [15].…”