Age-Related Differences in Navigational Performance within an Immersive Virtual Environment

Abstract

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the effects of aging on spatial performance in an immersive virtual environment. Adults (20 to 75 years of age) were taught a route through a six-room virtual house, while wearing a helmet mounted display (HMD) and using a joystick to navigate the virtual environment. Participants viewed the environment under monoscopic conditions with a display resolution of 640 pixels by 480 pixels, a field-of-view (FOV) of 30° H × 22° V, and a scene update rate of 15 Hz. Participants performed tasks designed to assess their spatial knowledge in terms of landmark knowledge, route knowledge, and configuration knowledge metrics. Locomotion efficiency and landmark knowledge did not significantly change with age. As age increased, route and configuration knowledge significantly decreased while the time needed to complete virtual environment spatial tasks increased (p < 0.05). The occurrence of side effects was also recorded; however, no significant differences with respect to age were found. The results are discussed in terms of designing virtual environments for adults.