What makes a route appear longer? An experimental perspective on features, route segmentation, and distance knowledge

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality

Background:

• Environmental features, such as landmarks, are known to influence spatial cognition and navigation.
• Previous research has explored how landmarks affect distance perception, but findings on whether they cause overestimation remain inconclusive.
• The role of hierarchical route structuring, induced by landmarks, on distance estimation requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of environmental features (landmarks) on distance estimation in a virtual reality (VR) setting.
• To differentiate the effects of landmarks that merely fill a route versus those that segment it, creating hierarchical structures.
• To examine how the perspective from which an environment is learned (route vs. survey) moderates the influence of landmarks on distance estimation.

Main Methods:

• Five experiments were conducted using a desktop virtual reality system.
• Participants learned environmental layouts either through a route perspective (navigating) or a survey perspective (using a map).
• Landmarks were manipulated to either fill the route or fill and segment it, creating hierarchical structures.

Main Results:

• In route-learned environments, both filling and segmenting landmarks led to distance overestimation.
• In route-learned environments, segmenting a route via feature grouping did not result in overestimation.
• In survey-learned environments, route segmentation (by feature or grouping) caused distance overestimation, while mere filling did not.

Conclusions:

• The influence of environmental features on distance estimation is dependent on the type of feature and the perspective from which the environment is learned.
• Hierarchical structuring of routes through landmarks can lead to overestimation of distances, particularly when learned from a survey perspective.
• Findings contribute to understanding spatial memory and navigation in virtual environments, with implications for VR design and training.