Wayfinding Abilities Research Articles

Spatial Orientation Assessment in the Elderly: A Comprehensive Review of Current Tests.

Spatial orientation and navigation are complex cognitive functions that integrate sensory information, attention, and memory, enabling individuals to locate themselves in their environment. These abilities decline with age, signaling cognitive impairment in neurological patients, and significantly limit the autonomy of the elderly. Current neuropsychological assessments fall short in accurately measuring everyday wayfinding abilities, particularly in borderline cases of cognitive decline. This paper reviews various neuropsychological assessments, including Benton's Judgment of Line Orientation Test, the Almeria Spatial Memory Recognition Test, the Spatial Span subtest from the Wechsler Memory Scale, and the Spatial Orientation in Immersive Virtual Environment Maze Test, evaluating their effectiveness in delineating spatial orientation and navigation skills. The review identifies significant gaps in the validity and reliability of these tests, particularly in their shortened versions, and highlights the potential of virtual reality environments as promising tools for improving diagnostic precision. The findings underscore the need for further research to refine these tools, ensuring they accurately capture cognitive decline and improve the differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Such advancements hold promise for enhancing the quality of care and autonomy for the elderly.

Navigating the Maze: Caregivers Perception on Design Elements to Improve Wayfinding for Older Adults With Dementia in Long-Term Care Facilities.

The main purpose of this research is to understand the wayfinding experience of older adults with dementia in long-term care facilities and identifying environmental design elements that support older adults' spatial abilities. Wayfinding problems are the earliest symptoms of dementia, and older adults with cognitive impairment are more likely to get lost in the community and consequences cause psychological responses such as insecurity, agitation, and falling in their environment. The research used data collected from 30 caregivers of two long-term care facilities in the Midwest through a survey and interview on their perceptions of wayfinding design elements. The research findings highlighted on caregivers' perception on wayfinding experience of older adults with dementia. The findings show a significant difference between importance and satisfaction on floor pattern and visibility in the facilities. Study indicated that glass partitions in the middle of the hall and corridor can create visual obstruction for older adults and barrier for staff as well to keep visual track on them. The qualitative study revealed that different colored doors for individual patient room in a memory care enhance older adults' wayfinding abilities. In addition, in case of multisensory stimuli, noise and smell can improve their wayfinding abilities as well. The conclusion of the study highlights the importance of understanding the design elements that can be effective in creating a safer environment for older adults with dementia.

Adults' Visual Cue Preferences and Wayfinding Abilities in Healthcare Centers.

Physical and visual elements that help people find their way around an environment are called visual cues (VCs). The current study aims to evaluate adults' wayfinding abilities (navigation, orientation, spatial anxiety, and distance estimation) and VC (navigational color coding) preferences in terms of color and position; additionally, investigates their differences in adults' life span phases (young adults, early middle-aged adults, and late middle-aged adults). Wayfinding in complex environments such as healthcare centers has been challenging for most people. Although VCs are being used increasingly to facilitate wayfinding, considering people's preferences regarding VCs, especially navigational color coding, are neglected. Obtained data from a survey of 375 healthcare center visitors with textual and photo questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statics and one-way analysis of variance. Young adults preferred VCs with "mixed colors and positioned in the middle of the floor," early middle-aged adults preferred "warm color VCs in the middle of the wall," and late middle-aged adults preferred "warm color VCs at the bottom of the wall." Additionally, the results demonstrated that with aging, navigation and distance estimation abilities deteriorate, and spatial anxiety increases. The outcomes of the present study increase our knowledge regarding the impact of adults' life span phases on their wayfinding abilities and VC preferences and offer suggestions for architects and healthcare center stakeholders to provide environments that improve adults' wayfinding.

Principles for Monte Carlo agent-based evacuation simulations including occupants who need assistance. From RSET to RiSET

A few modelling approaches are available to assess the egress of people who need assistance to evacuate, since both physical and cognitive aspects should be considered. In this study, an agent-based approach has been adopted with a focus on the behavioural rules assigned to the agents depending on their characteristics and goals. In emergency, while the majority of the occupants recognise the risk and start their evacuation autonomously, the people who need assistance do not necessarily act in that way. Trained and skilled staff are required to contact and assist those needing help that could otherwise remain inside. In this study, “meta-communication” defines the different ways that “link” the rescuers and the people who need assistance during the evacuation. A unified framework is proposed to establish a standard codification of the occupant profiles, both autonomous and those who need assistance, in order to evaluate their evacuation capabilities for use in agent-based models. Based on their mobility and way-finding abilities, occupants are classified into a basic set of five categories. For each occupant category, the mobility device and the staff assistance eventually required are specified. This codification may originate a variety of design occupant profiles which are applied to specific groups of building occupants. Apart from occupant characteristics, it is necessary to define the service discipline, consisting of three components: the staffskills and consistency, the scheduling policy, and the mobility device eventually required to relocate the assisted occupant. The movement of people as groups should also be considered to establish a link between the occupants, including those who need assistance. The inclusive approach proposed in this study has been implemented using Pathfinder software and applied to the analysis of the assisted horizontal evacuation scenario of a hospital ward. The stochastics variables representing the occupant characteristics and the service discipline have been described by probability distributions, including both autonomous and assisted profiles. The Monte Carlo methods provide the means to address the parameter uncertainty in probabilistic risk analysis. The general relationship between the number of iterations executed and the accuracy of the results of interest (mean, variance, proportion of population of the output stochastic variable of interest) is discussed. Based on the Central Limit Theorem, a general a priori estimate of the number of trials required for a specified accuracy in the evacuation time modelling is obtained and a predictor-corrector scheme for conducting and terminating a single loop Monte Carlo evacuation modelling analysis is proposed and applied to the worked case. Model validation is then required to establish whether the results of the simulations are accurate and correctly predict the relevant evacuation scenario. The principles of performance-based inclusive design are thus established, introducing the occupants who need assistance, the assisting staff role, and the service discipline, in a generalization of the conventional Required Safe Escape Time (RSET): the Required Safe and inclusive Escape Time (RiSET).

Towards an optimal design of natural human interaction mechanisms for a service robot with ancillary way-finding capabilities in industrial environments

ABSTRACT In addition to production-oriented robots, service robots with social skills can also perform a role in industrial environments, providing on-demand ancillary services that support production activities. In this paper, a robot that provides way-finding services within an industrial facility (e.g., finding a person or place) and is able to naturally interact with workers is presented. So as to give a more natural dimension to the robot’s verbal interaction ability and achieve acceptance from human workers, the research in this paper is directed towards the improvement of its semantic natural language interpreter, with the aim of making it able to automatically learn from new interactions. A user study is also reported, in order to assess both the capabilities of the interpreter and the performance of the robot’s communication and way-finding abilities, paying special attention to user experience (UX), which may help identify possible design problems in further research stages.

Path Learning From Navigation in Aging: The Role of Cognitive Functioning and Wayfinding Inclinations

Aging coincides with a decline in navigation and wayfinding abilities, but it is unclear to what extent factors relating to a given individual may contribute to mitigating this decline. The present study aims to analyze how older adults’ objective cognitive functioning and self-reported subjective wayfinding inclinations predict their navigation performance. Sixty-four older adults were assessed on their general cognitive functioning (all scoring from 22 to 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, MoCA), visuospatial working memory (VSWM), and perspective-taking abilities. Their self-assessed wayfinding inclinations (such as their sense of direction, pleasure in exploring places, and spatial anxiety) were also examined. Then participants learned a path in an environment from video navigation and performed a route repetition task (which maintained the same egocentric perspective as the learning phase), and a sketch map task (which involved switching from an egocentric perspective used in the learning phase to an allocentric perspective). The results showed that positive wayfinding inclinations (in terms of pleasure in exploring) related to participants’ route repetition accuracy, while their general cognitive performance (MoCA scores) related to their sketch map drawing accuracy. Individual factors such as cognitive functioning and wayfinding inclinations relate differently to older people’s navigation performance, depending on the demands of the tasks used to test their environment learning.

Intact wayfinding abilities in patients with Parkinson's disease

IntroductionPrevious studies have found that patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD) showed impairments in certain aspects of spatial orientation. The current study aimed to systematically investigate whether these impairments extend to wayfinding abilities in patients with PD. Wayfinding refers to the ability to navigate to an unseen location in the environment and is essential to one's everyday functioning. MethodsA total of 24 patients with PD, 20 ability matched controls, 21 college students participated in a series of experimental behavioral tasks and a self-report of environmental abilities. In the route learning task, participants learned and then recalled routes. In the survey learning task, participants were asked to form configurational or survey knowledge. In the map tracing tack, participants were asked to trace the turning directions of a route on a map. ResultsPatients with PD showed no impairments in the behavioral measures of wayfinding relative to ability matched controls. Both groups performed worse than college students, who had higher cognitive levels. Patients with PD, however, reported a higher competency in environmental abilities than college students. ConclusionAlthough wayfinding abilities may decrease as cognitive abilities decline, they do not appear as a unique impairment for patients with PD relative to their cognitive level.

INTEREST GROUP SESSION—TECHNOLOGY AND AGING: THE POTENTIAL AND PITFALLS OF EXTENDED REALITY SOLUTIONS FOR SUPPORTING AND ASSESSING OLDER ADULTS

Extended Reality (XR), which encompasses Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), holds a great deal of promise for improving the health and well-being of older adults. These opportunities include providing rehabilitation, physical exercise, skills training, leisure opportunities, and support for instrumental activities of daily living. Further, XR presents novel assessment opportunities. This session will explore the potential of XR solutions, and also crucial barriers to XR implementation, adoption, and engagement, particularly with respect to the “digital divide.” Some older adults, for a number of reasons, experience greater challenges adopting and using newer technologies. This session will start with a broad overview of issues related to XR solutions and will identify critical research needs, with an emphasis on the needs of older adults. This will be followed by a presentation of older adults’ perceptions of XR using data derived from a large, nationally representative sample. While some older adults reported not being ready for XR solutions, many older adults reported being willing to accept them to support optimal aging. Next, a study is presented that directly compares older adults’ perceptions of presence and immersion in virtual spaces. Using VR to assess wayfinding and navigation abilities of older adults is discussed next. The final talk will present VR usability issues derived from interview and focus group data. The session discussant will bring an interdisciplinary perspective to these important issues.

Guide dogs' navigation after a single journey: A descriptive study of path reproduction, homing, shortcut and detour.

Guide dogs are working dogs that follow the verbal instructions of owners with severe visual impairments, leading them through the environment and toward goals such as a subway entrance (“Find the subway” instruction). During this process, guide dogs incidentally familiarize themselves with their environment. As such, they provide a unique animal model for studying wayfinding abilities in the canine species. In the present descriptive study, 23 skilled guide dogs travelled along a path once and were subsequently tested in a navigation task, with a blindfolded guide dog instructor as the handler. Dogs had difficulty reproducing the path (only 30.43% of the dogs succeeded) and returning (homing) along the previously travelled path (43.47% of the dogs succeeded). However, 80% of them successfully took a shortcut, and 86.95% a detour. This is the first description of the wayfinding abilities of dogs after a single discrete exploration of the path (incidental learning) in systematic experimental conditions. Errors, initiatives and success rates showed that dogs were able to keep track of the goal if the path was short, but errors increased with longer paths, suggesting segmented integration of path characteristics process, as demonstrated in humans. Additionally, errors on homing and detouring, both vital wayfinding tasks, were correlated, suggesting an effect of experience. Initiatives taken by the dogs further suggest flexibility of the spatial representation elaborated. Interestingly, we also found that homing was the only task to benefit from severe visual disability and regular exposure to new journeys, suggesting that these two factors influence the most important wayfinding task. This study therefore highlights qualitative and quantitative wayfinding abilities in the dog species, as well as the factors that account for them, after a single path exploration accompanied by natural ongoing motivation. In the wake of the discovery that dogs are sensitive to the magnetic field, our results provide the basis for developing systematic wayfinding tests for guide dogs.

Time-restricted orientation of green turtles

Sea turtles have an exceptional ability to travel accurately between known habitats as well as from unknown areas back to familiar habitats. Previous studies indicate that their ability to migrate long distances depends upon geomagnetic cues, but that they may rely on other undetermined cues once they are close to their destination. It has been suggested that they may then use visual cues for orientation during daylight hours, but detailed analysis of their movements when approaching their destination, particularly in relation to time of day, are lacking. This study examined the orientation behaviour of 22 displaced green turtles (Chelonia mydas), tracked en route back to their foraging habitats in eastern Australia. Study turtles tended to alternate stationary and travelling states during their trip home. Orientation corrections predominantly occurred immediately after a stationary state and after sunrise. This is the first study to demonstrate time-restricted orientation by sea turtles and provided a new insight into their sophisticated way-finding abilities.

Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: a way to improve children's wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment.

Wayfinding is defined as the ability to learn and remember a route through an environment. Previous researchers have shown that young children have difficulties remembering routes. However, very few researchers have considered how to improve young children's wayfinding abilities. Therefore, we investigated ways to help children increase their wayfinding skills. In two studies, a total of 72 5-year olds were shown a route in a six turn maze in a virtual environment and were then asked to retrace this route by themselves. A unique landmark was positioned at each junction and each junction was made up of two paths: a correct path and an incorrect path. Two different strategies improved route learning performance. In Experiment 1, verbally labeling on-route junction landmarks during the first walk reduced the number of errors and the number of trials to reach a learning criterion when the children retraced the route. In Experiment 2, encouraging children to attend to on-route junction landmarks on the first walk reduced the number of errors when the route was retraced. This was the first study to show that very young children can be taught route learning skills. The implications of our results are discussed.

치매환자의 길찾기 향상을 위한 환경요소에 관한 연구 - 치매환자를 위한 노인전문병원 및 요양시설을 중심으로

Purpose : The main objective of this paper is, to assess a body of research evidence that articulates the impact of environment-related factors on wayfinding for people with dementia who reside in Long-term care Facilities. The study also aims at identifying design implications that can be incorporated into design process and design decisions to improve wayfinding abilities for people with dementia. Methods : Comprehensive literature review has been conducted to identify empirical studies and carefully investigated peer-reviewed articles published in many different fields including architecture, psychology, nursing to gerontology. Results : The review found a growing body of studies that identified environment-related factors that improve wayfinding of people with Dementia living in long-term care facilities. Implications : The findings of the review can be considered as design guidelines to support the wayfinding abilities of people with dementia living in long-term care Facilities.

Older driver and passenger collaboration for wayfinding in unfamiliar areas

Passenger collaboration offers a potential compensatory strategy to assist older drivers who have difficulty driving in unfamiliar areas (wayfinding). This article describes a survey of 194 healthy, community-dwelling older drivers and their regular passengers to investigate how passengers assist drivers, and to identify the characteristics of drivers and passengers who regularly collaborate to assist with wayfinding. Three aspects of passenger assistance were investigated: Pre-trip planning, directional guidance and searching for visual cues. Results revealed a high incidence of collaboration amongst drivers and passengers who regularly drive together. Collaboration was dependent on the perceived wayfinding abilities of the driver by both passenger and driver, suggesting that passengers are more likely to help if they think they will be of assistance. This information provides baseline information on which future research can examine the safety benefits of passenger assistance in wayfinding.

Effects of electronic maps on wayfinding abilities of patients with mild Alzheimer disease

We explored the effect and the difference between types of navigation maps (north-up map versus track-up map), landmarks, and the map complexity on the wayfinding abilities of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Our study included 48 participants (12 patients with AD, 12 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 24 normal elderly subjects). We developed a virtual maze with 3Dmax and an interface with Virtools. Our results showed that the wayfinding abilities were worse in the AD group compared with the MCI group and the normal elderly. However, with the support of track-up maps, the AD group and the MCI group had similar performance as the normal elderly. The time spent on wayfinding decreased when using less complex maps and maps with no landmarks. All cognitive tests which we performed were significantly correlated with wayfinding abilities. Our study helped to establish future electric navigation maps built for patients with cognition impairment.

Self-reported wayfinding ability of older drivers

Some older drivers experience difficulties driving whilst wayfinding in unfamiliar areas. Difficulties in wayfinding have been associated with poorer driving performance and reduced driving mobility. The objective of the current study was to identify cognitive and demographic predictors in older drivers of perceived wayfinding difficulty, avoidance of unfamiliar areas and the use of wayfinding strategies. Five hundred and thirty-four drivers aged 65 years and over (excluding those with dementia or Parkinson's disease) completed a mail-out survey. Drivers commonly reported difficulties with wayfinding, with 59.5% reporting their abilities as poor or fair rather than good. Those significantly more likely to report difficulty were older, reported poorer health and cognition, and had less driving experience. A small proportion of drivers reported regularly avoiding unfamiliar areas (13.8%); these drivers were significantly more likely to be female and to report poorer wayfinding abilities. The most common wayfinding strategies regularly used by older drivers were using a street directory whilst driving (61.9%) and pulling over to check the map (55.1%). Regular passenger guidance (23.9%) or use of a navigation system (9.9%) was less common. The implications of this study are wide and include collecting further information about: (1) the role of cognitive processes in wayfinding ability; (2) the relationship between perceived wayfinding difficulty and restriction of driving in unfamiliar areas; and (3) older drivers’ preferences for different wayfinding strategies.

The Impact of the Wayfinding Ability to Use Satisfaction and Intention to Revisit, Recommendation: Focusing on COEX Mall

This study was to evaluate the impact of the wayfinding ability of the individual visitor attitudes. These wayfinding ability to analyze the preceding literature, were examined for the ability to determine whether any relationship and the attitude of the place for visitors. Firstly, the users' wayfinding abilities were identified as partially affecting the use satisfaction. Second, users' wayfinding abilities were identified as partially affecting revisit. Third, users' wayfinding abilities were identified as partially affecting recommendations. Finally, revisit and recommend to influence users' satisfaction were identified. Than the results of this study considering the structural characteristics of the space underground commercial facilities with the ground and the need for other forms of communication design, marketing strategy, especially considering the key aspects of complex commercial facility services space with the need for practical significance for can be said to have.

Do individuals with intellectual disability select appropriate objects as landmarks when learning a new route?

The present study was aimed at investigating the selection of landmarks by individuals with intellectual disability (ID). The hypothesis was that they would be less efficient than individuals without IDs in the selection of landmarks when learning a new route. The experiment took place in a natural setting with a group of participants with ID and a group of control participants matched by chronological age. The participants were first guided along a route situated in an unfamiliar district. Then, they had to guide the experimenter along the route while pointing to all the objects and features they found useful for wayfinding. The designated objects were categorised as a function of their landmarks properties. There were significant differences between the two groups for non-permanent landmarks, distant landmarks and non-unique landmarks. The two groups selected landmarks near intersections in the same proportions. However, the individuals with ID selected more non-unique landmarks and less textual signage than the control group at these decision points. Individuals with ID seem to be less efficient than individuals without disability in landmark selection. This may limit their wayfinding abilities in their day-to-day travelling. This may also account for their difficulties in obtaining the kind of spatial knowledge which relates to the configural structure of their environment.

Wayfinding for People with Dementia: A Review of the Role of Architectural Design

This paper provides an overview of the available literature on architectural wayfinding design for people with dementia in nursing homes. The results were to be summarized and substantiated through an interdisciplinary interpretation, taking into account changes in the orientation process of people with dementia. Spatial disorientation and declining wayfinding abilities are among the early symptoms of dementia, limiting a person's ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) independently and ultimately, perhaps leading to institutionalization. A prerequisite to maintaining residents' quality of life in a nursing home is their ability to orient themselves within their new environment. The available literature on wayfinding design for people with dementia in nursing homes was reviewed. Two aspects of interventions for residents' wayfinding abilities were identified: the design of the floor plan typology and environmental cues. The design of the physical environment plays a major role in supporting the wayfinding abilities of people with dementia. The floor plan design of a nursing home in particular has a significant influence on residents' spatial orientation and wayfinding. Additional interventions such as signage, furnishing, lighting, and colors are additional supporting features but they cannot compensate for an adverse architectural design. For the creation of a supportive, dementia-friendly environment, both aspects of architectural design must be considered. Design guidelines to support the wayfinding abilities of people with dementia were developed to synthesize both.

Margi Park concept design: Nursing home for seniors and EU-standards

The physical environment has a great potential for supporting resident's residual way-finding abilities. Until now little systematic research has been carried out to identify supportive architectural characteristics. The architectural structure of the buildings and the impact of the different architectural characteristics was also analyzed. Results show that people with advancing dementia are increasingly dependent on a compensating environment. Our experience in design of contemporary homes and its environment for elderly persons is an example how the young generation can remain an integral part of the elderly peoples lives. Any Cooperation between Serbia and Germany is to be in accordance with European Standards and Norms.

Demenzfreundliche Architektur

Spatial disorientation is among the first manifestations of dementia and a prime reason for institutionalization. However, the autonomy of residents and their quality of live are strongly linked with their ability to reach certain places within the nursing home. Also affected is the efficiency of the institutions and the quality of care provided.The physical environment has a great potential for supporting resident's residual wayfinding abilities. Until now little systematic research has been carried out to identify supportive architectural characteristics.For this exploratory study, extensive data on resident's spatial capabilities were collected in 30 German nursing homes. The architectural structure of the buildings was also analyzed. Within the nursing homes five identical, ADL-related wayfinding tasks were identified. Skilled nurses rated the resident's ability to perform those tasks on a three-point scale. The impact of the different architectural characteristics on the resulting scores was tested for statistical significance.Results show that people with advancing dementia are increasingly dependent on a compensating environment. Significant influencing factors are the number of residents per living area, the layout of the circulation system and the characteristics of the living/dining room. Smaller units facilitate wayfinding but larger entities may also provide good results, if they feature a straight circulation system without any changes in direction. Repetitive elements, such as several living/dining rooms, interfere with a resident's wayfinding abilities. These and further results were transformed into architectural policies and guidelines which can be used in the planning and remodelling of nursing homes.