The effect of orientation instructions on the recall and reuse of route and survey elements in wayfinding descriptions

Abstract

Turn-by-turn instructions of navigation systems do not fully correspond to the way in which people typically communicate spatial information to each other. Previous research demonstrated that the acquisition of survey knowledge from such instructions is challenging. In the present study we investigate whether it is possible to create wayfinding instructions that communicate survey information, without sacrificing the recall of route information. We explore whether the presentation of survey information can be easily mentally integrated with route information. To this end, we compared three different types of wayfinding instructions: turn-by-turn instructions, which include streets and metric distances; spatial chunking instructions which include local route information such as landmarks located at decision points and present instructions in cognitively logical chunks; and our orientation instructions, which combine local and global information of the route and integrate it within the environment's context. Instructions were presented in verbal and visual modes. Results showed that it is possible to improve the recall of survey information without sacrificing the recall of route-specific elements: visual orientation instructions resulted in significantly higher landmark recall rates, significantly higher quality sketch maps, and significantly more “survey-like” sketch map types. In the verbal mode, differences between orientation instructions and spatial chunking instructions were less clear, but the performance of both was better, compared to turn-by-turn instructions. These results contribute to the ongoing discussion on the potential reasons for the navigation systems' detrimental effect on spatial learning and demonstrate that people can learn both types of knowledge if the presentation style supports it. The overall amount of acquired knowledge could be improved through orientation instructions. Our study has practical implications for the future design of navigation systems.