Virtual/Real Transfer of Spatial Knowledge: Benefit from Visual Fidelity Provided in a Virtual Environment and Impact of Active Navigation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect the visual fidelity of a virtual environment (VE) (undetailed vs. detailed) has on the transfer of spatial knowledge based on the navigation mode (passive vs. active) for three different spatial recall tasks (wayfinding, sketch mapping, and picture sorting). Sixty-four subjects (32 men and 32 women) participated in the experiment. Spatial learning was evaluated by these three tasks in the context of the Bordeaux district. In the wayfinding task, the results indicated that the detailed VE helped subjects to transfer their spatial knowledge from the VE to the real world, irrespective of the navigation mode. In the sketch-mapping task, the detailed VE increased performances compared to the undetailed VE condition, and allowed subjects to benefit from the active navigation. In the sorting task, performances were better in the detailed VE; however, in the undetailed version of the VE, active learning either did not help the subjects or it even deteriorated their performances. These results are discussed in terms of appropriate perceptive-motor and/or spatial representations for each spatial recall task.

Executive and memory correlates of age-related differences in wayfinding performances using a virtual reality application

“…All of the material and procedures are derived from previous studies demonstrating the relevance of VR-based applications to study spatial learning (Wallet, Sauzéon, Rodrigues, & N'Kaoua, 2008;Wallet, Sauzéon, Rodrigues, Larrue, & N'Kaoua, 2009;Wallet, Sauzéon, Rodrigues, Larrue, & N'Kaoua, 2010;Wallet, Sauzéon, Pala, Larrue, & N'Kaoua, 2011). The VE was a replica of the district near Bordeaux's hospital.…”

“…If the subject made a wrong decision, he was shown the correct direction by the experimenter and continued on the route. Thus, two scores were calculated from this task: the number of direction errors (wrong turns) and the number of stops during the wayfinding task, as a probe of the use of spatial representation to perform a navigational task (Lapeyre, Hourlier, Servantie, N'Kaoua, & Sauzéon, 2011;Wallet et al, 2008Wallet et al, , 2009Wallet et al, , 2010Wallet et al, , 2011.…”

“…The first was a map drawing task, known to be well performed when participants have developed a good spatial cognitive map of the environment (Lapeyre et al, 2011;Wallet et al, 2008Wallet et al, , 2009Wallet et al, , 2010Wallet et al, , 2011: the subject has to draw the route learned in the VE on a blank sheet of paper. The drawing had to be made of connected segments, representing the linear locomotion and direction changes.…”

Assessing the Impact of Automatic vs. Controlled Rotations on Spatial Transfer with a Joystick and a Walking Interface in VR

“…Different authors already showed great spatial transfers with "normal" [1][2] [3] or patients with disabilities people [27]. Numerous factors like visual fidelity [2], retention delay [1], game experience [16] [24]. Moreover, these interfaces don't provide vestibular information, known to improve spatial acquisition.…”

“…These results are in accordance with literature. For example, Wallet et al [2] found, on the same type of task, that visual fidelity of a VE was more important than the interface used. We may wonder that different body-based information and attentional levels provided by our four interfaces had a little impact on tasks that do not require the recall of an action.…”