Wayfinding in a virtual environment and Down syndrome: The impact of navigational aids

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), such as those with Down syndrome (DS), sometimes get lost, even when walking familiar routes. Among the spatial cognition models addressing the dynamic construction of spatial representations, the theoretical framework of Siegel and White (1975) remains a reference. The aim of this work is to use virtual reality technology to (a) elucidate the spatial deficits associated with ID in reference to the Siegel and White framework and (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 wayfinding assistive procedures (signified landmarks, arrows, and elevated views).

We have developed a virtual environment that represents a replica of the district near Bordeaux hospital, by using Virtools software. The subject is instructed to learn a path and reproduce it by using a joystick. Four experimental learning conditions were compared. The participant observed the path either from ground level without support ("control" condition), or with direction support ("arrows" condition), or with landmark support ("signified landmarks" conditions) or from a height of 4 m in the "elevated view" condition.

The results revealed that DS participants achieved significantly lower scores than typically developing children for the wayfinding, route level, and configurational level tasks. The performance of DS participants was enhanced only in the signified landmarks condition (condition in which the landmark had a bright color).

Such results may be particularly fruitful to define appropriate digital aids to support people with DS to travel more independently in unfamiliar environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).