The influence of environmental features on route selection in an emergency situation

Vilar, Elisângela; Rebelo, Francisco; Noriega, Paulo; Teles, Júlia; Mayhorn, Christopher B.

doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2012.12.002

Cited by 101 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, spatial differentiation of an indoor environment aids the development of a cognitive map (Xu, Huang, and Tang 2009). Other research has demonstrated that width and brightness of corridor intersections influence people's preference regarding egress in emergency situations; when they arrive at a choice point between two corridors, they are more likely to choose the corridor that is wider and brighter than one that is not (Vilar et al 2013). As regards operational elements, research has modelled the effect of improved signage on the use of signage during an evacuation (Xie et al 2012).…”

Section: Route-planning Supportmentioning

confidence: 96%

3-D route-planning support for navigation in a complex indoor environment

Schaik

Mayouf

Aranyi

2015

Behaviour & Information Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Three-dimensional (3-D) route-planning support offers a promising solution to overcome problems with wayfinding in complex indoor environments. An experiment was conducted to test the effect of 3-D route-planning support in a realistic setting, a large hospital building, during normal operation. Forty participants performed navigation tasks either with (n = 20) or without (n = 20) 3-D route-planning support. Support resulted in faster navigation, more use of artwork specifically installed to aid wayfinding, fewer navigation errors, less disorientation and less anxiety. In addition, participants used different strategies for wayfinding: without navigation support they used signs and route colour, but with navigation support they used not only the artwork, but also the existing furniture and other landmarks. The acceptance of 3-D route-planning support was high. Overall, the results support the value of 3-D route-planning support.

show abstract

Section: Route-planning Supportmentioning

confidence: 96%

3-D route-planning support for navigation in a complex indoor environment

Schaik

Mayouf

Aranyi

2015

Behaviour & Information Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The main research question explores people's directional choice when explicit and implicit information are placed in a conflicting situation. Thus, this current study aims to investigate whether directional signage is strong enough to overcome those environmental affordances (i.e., corridor width and brightness) studied by Vilar and colleagues () in choice points.…”

Section: The Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The current experiment was developed based on a previous study carried out by Vilar and colleagues (). In their study, 57 different corridors (stimuli), divided into two types of corridors intersections (i.e., “T‐type” and “F‐type,” on Figure ), were analyzed considering two variables: corridor width and brightness.…”

Section: The Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the basis of the results attained by Vilar and colleagues (), the main goal of this current study was to investigate the influence of posted signs on participants’ directional decisions where environmental affordances (implicit information) act to guide participants in the opposite direction of signs (explicit information). Thereby creating situations with conflicting information (e.g., a brighter corridor vs. a darker corridor but with a directional sign, indicating to follow by the darker one).…”

Section: The Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As results, they found that people were influenced by these environmental variables, preferring to follow wider and brighter corridors, and that brightness is a stronger factor of attraction than width. Vilar and colleagues () verified that the variables corridor width and brightness can act as factors of attraction, enhancing corridors affordances and the likelihood of selecting a particular path during the wayfinding process. Thus, corridor width and brightness can be considered environmental affordances (implicit information) that somehow inform the users of what path to choose.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Signage Versus Environmental Affordances: Is the Explicit Information Strong Enough to Guide Human Behavior During a Wayfinding Task?

Vilar

Rebelo

Noriega

et al. 2014

Hum Ftrs & Erg Mfg Svc

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study aims to explore how people behave when they have to find a location within a complex building and are confronted with situations where directional signage (i.e., explicit information) is in opposition to environmental affordances that naturally direct users towards a specific path, creating a situation with conflicting information (e.g., a brighter corridor vs. a darker corridor but with a directional sign indicating to follow the darker one). A virtual reality–based methodology was used and a between‐subject design was considered. Thus, participants were given the tasks of finding three publicly accessible central points in a virtual hotel and confronted with a two forced‐choice task of local scenes in which environmental variables (i.e., corridor width and brightness) and signage varied systematically, in two experimental conditions (i.e., neutral and signage). For the signage condition, signs were inserted to explicitly point in the opposite direction than that implicitly suggested by the environmental affordances, creating situations with conflicting information. Results indicate that environmental variables were able to direct people indoors acting as environmental affordances. Users preferred to follow the wider and brighter paths. However, when directional signage pointed in the opposite direction of the paths preferred by the participants, most of them complied with signage.

show abstract

Exploring the influencing factors of wall‐following behavior in a virtual reality fire evacuation game

Wang

Liu

et al. 2022

Computer Animation & Virtual

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In most of fire evacuation, people follow the walls. The reasons behind this escape behavior have not been verified by experiments. In this article, we design a virtual reality (VR) fire evacuation game with realistic virtual environment to explore the effects of smoke concentration, individual familiarity with the environment, and neighbor behavior on individual wall-following behavior.Individuals' familiarity with the environment is obtained through experimental training and the frequencies of their behavior along the wall at different smoke concentrations are recorded. From a subjective perspective, we use the presence scale to assess the immersion of the designed VR game. The results show that users have a good level of presence in the designed VR game. From an objective perspective, we analyze the game data using a statistically based approach. The analysis shows that high concentration of smoke, unfamiliar with the environment will increase individuals' reliance on walls, but neighbor behavior along the wall has no significant effect on individual wall-following behavior.

show abstract

The influence of environmental features on route selection in an emergency situation

Cited by 101 publications

References 25 publications

3-D route-planning support for navigation in a complex indoor environment

3-D route-planning support for navigation in a complex indoor environment

Signage Versus Environmental Affordances: Is the Explicit Information Strong Enough to Guide Human Behavior During a Wayfinding Task?

Exploring the influencing factors of wall‐following behavior in a virtual reality fire evacuation game

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About