Visuo-spatial ability and wayfinding performance in real-world

Abstract

In literature, there are not many studies which have investigated the relation between visuo-spatial ability and wayfinding in real world. In general, these works could be classified into two types: self-assessment studies, in which researchers ask people about their wayfinding ability, their type of navigation strategies or their daily spatial behaviour, in particular their awareness of orientation and their memory for usual spatial behaviour (e.g. Kato and Takeuchi 2003, Prestopnik and Roskos-Ewoldsen 2000); and behavioural studies, in which researchers ask a person to solve visuo-spatial tasks and perform wayfinding tasks. Our work uses this type of investigation method. The few studies presented in literature have shown mixed results. For example, Rovine and Weisman (1989) examined the relation between visuo-spatial ability, measured by spatial relation test and embedded figure test and wayfinding. They did not find any correlation between spatial relation test and wayfinding performance while embedded figure test scores were significantly correlated to wayfinding measures. To date, Blajenkova et al. (2005) have showed that individual differences in visuo-spatial ability, measured by a mental rotation test, resulted in differences in wayfinding performance. In general, there is little agreement in literature on the role plays from visuo-spatial ability to improve wayfinding performance. From our point of view, these results are biased by considering the visuo-spatial ability as a unique instead of a multi-component ability (Giusberti and Nori 1999). In particular, experiments that investigated spatial ability are concentrated on the study of a specific spatial aspect, that is the ability to use simultaneous spatial information. On the contrary, spatial memory is not an unitary but a multi-component system and it includes a wide range of abilities: visual, sequential and simultaneous. The importance of looking at specific subcomponents of spatial memory is supported by the visuo-spatial working memory, which is the cognitive system involved during the resolution of visuo-spatial tasks, proposed by Logie (1995). Fenner et al. (2000) have overcome this problem using six different tasks that are able to measure the different aspects of visuo-spatial ability. In their research, the authors examined the effect of visuo-spatial ability on wayfinding performance in young (5–6 years) and old (9–10 year) children. Results revealed that young children with high visuo-spatial ability (HV-SA) exhibited superior wayfinding compared to low visuospatial ability (LV-SA) children. This effect was not present in old children. In spite of these results, the aim of our work was to examine which may be the influence of visuo-spatial ability, considered as a multi-component ability, on wayfinding performance. Particularly, we predict that: HV-SA participants perform the wayfinding better and faster than LV-SA participants who should hesitate more than high visuo-spatial ability participants, during R. Nori (&) AE S. Grandicelli AE F. Giusberti Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita di Bologna, Bologna, Italy e-mail: raffaella.nori@unibo.it Cogn Process (2006) 7 (Suppl. 1):S135–S137 DOI 10.1007/s10339-006-0104-4