The effects of sense of direction and training experience on wayfinding efficiency

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of sense of direction and training experience on wayfinding performance. Participants navigated through a scale model of a building using route descriptions containing left–right or cardinal descriptors, or they completed an unrelated personality questionnaire. All participants then navigated through the hallways of the same building using directions containing left–right and cardinal descriptors. Sense of direction was assessed by asking participants to identify the direction of familiar, unseen locations. Participants with a keen sense of direction evinced fewer errors and faster wayfinding than did participants with a poor sense of direction, particularly for directions containing cardinal descriptors. Moreover, participants in both training conditions evinced faster wayfinding than did participants in the control condition when following directions involving cardinal descriptors. These findings indicate that both sense of direction and training experience affect wayfinding performance. Implications for wayfinding experiences in everyday contexts are discussed.