Influence of body-centered information on the transfer of spatial learning from a virtual to a real environment

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of body-centred information on the transfer of spatial learning using a wayfinding task and tasks that specifically probe the route and survey strategies of navigation. The subject learned a route in either a real or a virtual environment (VE; 3D scale model of a Bordeaux neighbourhood) and then reproduced it in the real environment. The involvement of body-based information was manipulated across the spatial learning conditions in the VE: participants learned with full body-based information (treadmill with rotation), with the translational component only (treadmill without rotation) or without body-based information (joystick). In the wayfinding task, the results showed a significant effect of the learning environment with the best scores obtained in the real and treadmill with rotation conditions. There was no significant difference between these two conditions, but the real condition was significantly different from the treadmill without rotation and joystick conditions. Also, the visual flow was sufficient to successfully perform the two egocentric tasks used as well as a direction estimation task (a survey task), in so far as there is no significant difference between the joystick and the treadmill conditions. By contrast, the distance estimates were improved by the treadmill condition including the translational component (but not the rotational component). Finally, our results show that treadmill with rotation promotes the transfer of spatial learning from a virtual to a real environment (compared to joystick and treadmill without rotation). Moreover, body-centred informations are more involved in allocentric (distance estimates) than egocentric navigational strategies.