Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 13, 2026

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind

Published on: March 27, 2013

Wayfinding behaviour in Down syndrome: a study with virtual environments.

Yannick Courbois¹, Emily K Farran, Axelle Lemahieu

¹PSITEC, UDL3, Université Lille Nord de France, F59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. Yannick.courbois@univ-lille3.fr

Research in Developmental Disabilities

|March 27, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Superior perceptual capacity is specific to autistic cognition.

Acta psychologica·2026

Same author

Motor Characteristics of Early Walking in Children With Williams Syndrome.

Perceptual and motor skills·2026

Same author

Examining associations between foundational and complex mathematics skills in people with Down syndrome and typically developing children.

The British journal of developmental psychology·2026

Same author

The developmental changes in emotion recognition from human biological motion by children aged from 4 to 12 years.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)·2026

Same author

Developmental changes in emotion recognition from human biological motion in children with intellectual developmental disorders and typically developing peers.

Journal of experimental child psychology·2025

Same author

SEE+ computerized classroom-based training enhances 7- to 10-year-olds' socio-emotional cognition through observation and inference.

PloS one·2025

Same journal

Short report: Patterns of motor difficulties among autistic, ADHD, or Autistic-ADHD youth in Iceland.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

Same journal

Understanding coaches' perspectives on sport as a driver of employability-related soft skills in athletes with intellectual disabilities.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

Same journal

Differential effects of physical activity interventions on gross and fine motor difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder: Insights from a multilevel meta-analysis with moderator analyses.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

Same journal

Does parenting stress affect marital quality among parents of children with disabilities? Evidence from a meta-analysis.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

Same journal

"Others Decide for Us": Recommendations became restrictions in services for people with intellectual disability in Sweden.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

Same journal

The effectiveness of a video-modeling-based treatment package for incontinence in children with and without developmental disabilities.

Research in developmental disabilities·2026

See all related articles

Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) can learn routes in virtual environments but struggle with flexible wayfinding, indicating difficulty integrating spatial knowledge. This impacts their ability to navigate novel situations effectively.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Neuroscience
Human Spatial Navigation

Background:

Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder associated with cognitive differences, including potential challenges in spatial cognition.
Understanding wayfinding abilities is crucial for assessing environmental navigation skills in individuals with DS.
Virtual environments (VEs) offer a controlled setting to study complex cognitive functions like spatial learning and navigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the wayfinding capabilities of individuals with Down syndrome (DS) within a virtual environment (VE).
To compare the route learning and spatial flexibility of individuals with DS against age-matched controls.
To investigate the integration of learned route knowledge into a broader environmental understanding.

Main Methods:

More Related Videos

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior

Published on: June 9, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 13, 2026

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind

Development of an Audio-based Virtual Gaming Environment to Assist with Navigation Skills in the Blind

Published on: March 27, 2013

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Assessing Human Spatial Navigation in a Virtual Space and its Sensitivity to Exercise

Published on: January 26, 2024

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior

Using a Virtual Reality Walking Simulator to Investigate Pedestrian Behavior

Published on: June 9, 2020

Participants with DS (N=10) and control groups (matched on mental age [MA] or chronological age [CA]) navigated a VE.
Route learning was assessed by the number of trials to reach a learning criterion.
Spatial flexibility was measured by the ability to generate a novel shortcut between two learned locations.

Main Results:

Most participants with DS successfully learned specific routes in the VE, requiring more trials than CA controls.
Individuals with DS demonstrated limited flexible wayfinding, failing to create novel shortcuts unlike CA controls.
The findings suggest a dissociation between route knowledge acquisition and configurational spatial understanding in DS.

Conclusions:

Individuals with Down syndrome can acquire declarative knowledge of specific routes within a VE.
They exhibit difficulties in developing a configurational understanding of the environment for flexible navigation.
These findings highlight specific spatial cognition challenges in DS that may impact real-world wayfinding.