Route memory in an unfamiliar homogeneous environment: a comparison of two strategies

Humans use many strategies for navigation. Strategies utilizing cognitive salience of landmark have not been tested for application. In this study, we compared two strategies that humans use while navigating in an unfamiliar homogenous environment to remember the route. First strategy, called route learning, involved remembering sequence of turns, while second strategy used a commonly known memory technique method of loci with slight modification. In route learning, participants did not rely on any landmark (no-landmark condition), while in method of loci they visualized personally significant landmarks (imagined condition). Two videos, each having nine identical turns (3 rights, 3 lefts and 3 straights) with no distinguishing feature at any turn, were developed using Trimble Sketchup and shown to 32 participants. The experiment was conducted in three phases. In the first phase, participants generated a list of personally known items to be used as landmarks. In the second phase, they saw the first video and were required to remember the sequence of turns. In the second video, they were required to imagine a landmark from the list generated in the first phase at each turn and associate the turn with the imaginary landmark. In both the tasks, the participants were asked to recall the sequence of turns as it appeared in the video. In the third phase, the participants were again asked to recall the sequence of turns. Result showed that memory of route was better without landmarks compared to imaginary landmark condition. This difference was insignificant when participants were tested again 20 min later. However, route memory was still better for no-landmark condition. The finding does not support earlier findings on route memory. Potential uses of method of loci for human wayfinding are mentioned.