Predictive use of environmental regularities requires action relevance.

ABSTRACT: Efficient navigation often depends on the ability to learn and exploit environmental regularities through predictive motor adjustments. We conducted two virtual reality experiments in which participants walked through a museum corridor towards one of two exit doors. In Experiment 1, a moveable obstacle appeared with high probability on one side depending on the block, but participants could delay their pathway choice until the obstacle became visible. Many adopted a waiting strategy, walking straight until the obstacle appeared and only then adjusting their route. This raised the question of whether this reflected a failure to learn or a strategic delay. In Experiment 2, we introduced a larger static obstacle that forced participants to commit earlier, thereby increasing the cost of late c

SUBMITTER: Kretzmeyer B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12800049 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature