Using virtual environments to assess directional knowledge

Abstract

Computer-simulated (virtual) environments offer several potential advantages over traditional means (e.g. paper and pencil tests) of assessing people's spatial knowledge of large-scale environments. We examined the relative accuracy and precision with which people estimated directions among unseen landmarks in a large familiar environment using five different methods. People estimated directions (1) in the real environment, (2) in an immersive virtual environment, (3) in a desktop virtual environment, (4) using a static visual image of the environment, and (5) using a traditional paper and pencil assessment technique. Direction estimates were more accurate and more precise in the first three conditions than in the other conditions. Errors and variances were highly correlated among the first three conditions but were not correlated among the other conditions. Direction estimates in the paper and pencil condition were affected by a response bias that has not been adequately addressed in prior literature.