Validation of a 3-factor structure of spatial strategies and relations to possession and usage of navigational aids

Münzer, Stefan; Fehringer, Benedict C. O. F.; Kühl, Tim

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2016.04.017

“…Schwering, Krukar, Li, Anacta, and Fuest (2017) have suggested that GPS devices negatively contribute to environmental learning ability due to their tendency to provide route-specific information. They propose that GPS devices would better support environmental learning by providing information that aids orientation to global space and landmarks, rather than turn-by-turn directions requiring little spatial attention (see also Brunyé, Gardony, Holmes, & Taylor, 2018;Münzer, Fehringer, & Kühl, 2016). In sum, our work suggests that GPS exerts its negative influence on spatial cognitive abilities in the long-term, building on work that has shown its negative effects on environmental learning in the short-term.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

GPS use negatively affects environmental learning through spatial transformation abilities

Ruginski

¹

,

Creem-Regehr

²

,

Stefanucci

³

et al. 2019

Journal of Environmental Psychology

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Research has established that GPS use negatively affects environmental learning and navigation in laboratory studies. Furthermore, the ability to mentally rotate objects and imagine locations from other perspectives (both known as spatial transformations) is positively related to environmental learning. Using previously validated spatial transformation and environmental learning tasks, the current study assessed a theoretical model where long-term GPS use is associated with worse mental rotation and perspective-taking spatial transformation abilities, which then predicts decreased ability to learn novel environments. We expected this prediction to hold even after controlling for self-reported navigation ability, which is also associated with better spatial transformation and environmental learning capabilities. We found that mental rotation and perspective-taking ability fully account for the effect of GPS use on learning of a virtual environment. This relationship remained after controlling for existing navigation ability. Specifically, GPS use is negatively associated with perspective-taking indirectly through mental rotation; we propose that GPS use affects the transformation ability common to mental rotation and perspective-taking.

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“…Schwering, Krukar, Li, Anacta, and Fuest (2017) have suggested that GPS devices negatively contribute to environmental learning ability due to their tendency to provide route-specific information. They propose that GPS devices would better support environmental learning by providing information that aids orientation to global space and landmarks, rather than turn-by-turn directions requiring little spatial attention (see also Brunyé, Gardony, Holmes, & Taylor, 2018;Münzer, Fehringer, & Kühl, 2016). Changing the information provided by GPS devices would help answer the question of whether providing different spatial information decreases the likelihood of negative associations of GPS use with environmental learning and transformation abilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GPS use negatively affects environmental learning through spatial transformation abilities

Ruginski¹,

Creem-Regehr²,

Stefanucci³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research has established that GPS use negatively affects environmental learning and navigation in laboratory studies. Furthermore, the ability to mentally rotate objects and imagine locations from other perspectives (both known as spatial transformations) is positively related to environmental learning. Using previously validated spatial transformation and environmental learning tasks, the current study assessed a theoretical model where long-term GPS use is associated with worse mental rotation and perspective-taking spatial transformation abilities, which then predicts decreased ability to learn novel environments. We expected this prediction to hold even after controlling for self-reported navigation ability, which is also associated with better spatial transformation and environmental learning capabilities. We found that mental rotation and perspective-taking ability fully account for the effect of GPS use on learning of a virtual environment. This relationship remained after controlling for existing navigation ability. Specifically, GPS use is negatively associated with perspective-taking indirectly through mental rotation; we propose that GPS use affects the transformation ability common to mental rotation and perspective-taking.

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“…The FRS questionnaire imposes self-report measures for spatial orientation strategies learned in real environments. It captures one strategy that is based on an egocentric reference frame and two strategies that are based on an allocentric reference frame (Münzer et al, 2016b;Münzer, Fehringer, & Kühl, 2016a;Münzer & Hölscher, 2011). The "globalegocentric scale" evaluates global orientation abilities and egocentric abilities based on knowledge of routes and directions.…”

Section: Frs Questionnairementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To estimate subjectively rated abilities in spatial orientation strategies learned in real-world environments, we asked subjects to fill out the FRS questionnaire (Münzer et al, 2016b;Münzer & Hölscher, 2011). To investigate the influence of these spatial orientation abilities on task accuracies after exploring a virtual city, we performed the more robust Spearman's rank correlation analysis of the FRS scales and task accuracies and reanalyzed the map data accordingly.…”

Section: Accuracy As a Function Of Frs Scalingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We tested all tasks with spontaneous response and time for cognitive reasoning. Additionally, we explored whether spatial orientation strategies based on egocentric or allocentric reference frames that are learned in everyday navigation, measured with the "Fragebogen Räumlicher Strategien" (FRS, translated as the "German Questionnaire of Spatial Strategies") (Münzer, Fehringer, & Kühl, 2016b;Münzer & Hölscher, 2011), had an impact on learning of spatial properties tested in our tasks after exploring a virtual city. The set of tasks aimed at investigating the influence of action relevant aspects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Embodied Spatial Knowledge Acquisition in Immersive Virtual Reality: Comparison to Map Exploration

König

¹

,

Keshava

²

,

Clay

³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Investigating spatial navigation in virtual environments enables to study spatial learning with different sources of information. Therefore, we designed a large virtual city and investigated spatial knowledge acquisition after direct experience in the virtual environment and compared this with results after exploration with an interactive map (König et al., 2019). Our results suggest that survey knowledge measured in a straight line pointing task between houses resulted in better accuracy after direct experience in VR than tasks directly based on cardinal directions and relative orientations. In contrast, after map exploration, the opposite pattern evolved. Taken together, our results suggest that the source of spatial exploration influenced spatial knowledge acquisition.

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Validation of a 3-factor structure of spatial strategies and relations to possession and usage of navigational aids

Cited by 33 publications

References 32 publications

GPS use negatively affects environmental learning through spatial transformation abilities

GPS use negatively affects environmental learning through spatial transformation abilities

GPS use negatively affects environmental learning through spatial transformation abilities

Embodied Spatial Knowledge Acquisition in Immersive Virtual Reality: Comparison to Map Exploration

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