Age and sex differences in a virtual version of the reorientation task

Abstract

Previous studies on allocentric frame of reference (FoR) have shown a substantial deficit in elderly spatial navigation. (e.g. Moffat and Resnick 2002). We referred to allocentric FoR in terms of the absence of reckoning cues in solving a spatial navigation task. Although age-related effect on navigational behaviour has been already evaluated in previous studies (e.g. Driscoll et al. 2005), rarely the impact of both layout and featural information has been systematically assessed. Acquisition and use of knowledge regarding the environment are fundamental to effective everyday functioning and, consequently, have a critical impact on the quality of life, particularly for elderly adults. A general aim of this study is to investigate the different weight of layout and featural information in a virtual version of reorientation paradigm (VReor) adopting an individual difference perspective. Virtual environments have been successfully employed in research involving both children (e.g. Newhouse et al. 2007) and elderly (Moffat and Resnick 2002). Benefits in the employment of virtual reality technologies can be summed as follows: (a) improvement in experimental control, with the advantage to create realistic, interactive three-dimensional environments, and to collect a large amount of reliable data, (b) maintained ecological validity with respect to real-world settings, (c) opportunity to investigate spatial navigation strategies in samples showing different characteristics, such as aged people and people with cognitive impairments and psychopathological conditions. In line with the aforementioned theoretical framework, this paper accounted for the following ideas: first, the layout information remains stable along lifespan, because it seems to be linked to a more implicit perception of space, the use of featural information is less stable along life-span, and it tends to corrupt earlier with age. Second, males rely predominantly on layout information, while featural information is used equally by both males and females.