Learning the layout of different environments: common or dissociated abilities?

ABSTRACT: People navigate in various types of spaces, including indoor and outdoor environments. These differ in availability of navigational cues, such as distal landmarks, clear boundaries, and regular grid structures. Does learning the layout of different types of environments rely on the same or diverse cognitive abilities? Do separate measures of learning reflect different abilities? In a study of individual differences, 88 people learned the layout of two virtual environments from first person experience: a grid-like maze, and a campus-like open environment. After learning each environment, their knowledge was measured by three tasks; onsite pointing, map-reconstruction, and wayfinding. Performance on these measures was significantly correlated. In confirmatory factor analyses, the best fittin

SUBMITTER: Topete A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11845639 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature