Do men and women navigate differently in virtual environments? A comparative study

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of gender and training interventions on spatial navigation in VR. Thirty-eight participants, divided into male and female intervention and control groups, performed a dual-task involving coin collection and destination location in a large-scale urban VR environment. Performance metrics included the number of coins collected, time taken to reach the destination, and eye-tracking data, normalised for task difficulty. While pre-test performance revealed no significant gender differences, eye movement data highlighted baseline gender differences in gaze patterns, with females exhibiting more exploratory behaviour. Training interventions led to performance improvements, particularly for females, whose gains remained statistically significant after Bonferroni correction. These improvements were accompanied by successful transitions between egocentric and allocentric strategies, as evidenced by gaze data and post-hoc interviews. For males, the intervention led to mixed results, with improvements in performance but a trade-off in efficiency. These findings deepen our understanding of how gender and training influence navigation strategies in VR and inform the design of future VR training systems, emphasising the importance of balancing cognitive load and strategy selection.