Does viewing a top-down map facilitate spatial learning from navigation in a virtual environment?

Abstract

We tested whether viewing a top-down map before or while exploring an environment can facilitate spatial learning through first-person navigation. In three experiments, participants navigated in virtual environments to find a sequence of targets (exploration) and then performed three tasks to assess their spatial knowledge: scene and orientation-dependent pointing (SOP), judgments of relative direction (JRD), and map reconstruction. In separate sessions, we tested conditions with and without map viewing. In Experiments 1 and 2, participants viewed a structural map of the environment before performing exploration trials. Experiment 1 tested city environments with rectangular intersections, and Experiment 2 tested village environments with a main path and irregular side paths. We found no evidence that the structural map previews improved overall accuracy of spatial representations learned from navigation. Experiment 3 tested a village environment with more distinctive landmarks and presented a detailed map without targets labeled repeatedly throughout the exploration and still found no benefit from viewing a top-down map for first-person navigation in large-scale virtual spaces. We speculate that difficulty in translating between egocentric and allocentric representations might make it difficult to integrate information from a map and navigation experience.