Overcoming navigational challenges: A novel approach to the study and assessment of topographical orientation

Abstract

Several studies investigating environmental navigation require participants to navigate in virtual environments, in which the proprioceptive and vestibular components present during real environmental navigation are lost. Here, we aimed to provide a novel computerized ecological navigational battery, investigating whether the absence of proprioceptive and vestibular inputs yields a representation of the navigational space comparable to that acquired ecologically. In Study 1, 38 participants underwent two sets of tasks, one performed in a laboratory-based setting (LBS) and the other in an ecological environment (EE), with both including evaluation of route, landmark, and survey knowledge and a landmark ordering task. All tasks, except the route task, significantly correlated between EE and LBS. In LBS, performance in the landmark ordering task was predicted by that in the survey task, but not by those in the route and landmark tasks. Results of Study 1 were replicated in Study 2, in which 44 participants completed a modified and shorter online version of LBS tests. Reliability of the online LBS tests was also tested and showed a moderate-to-high internal consistency. Overall, results show that the conditions in which tasks are performed affect the acquisition of route knowledge, likely due to the lack of proprioceptive and vestibular information in LBS. However, LBS tasks presented here provide a standard battery of tests that can overcome the replicability problems encountered by ecological navigation tests, while taking into consideration all the complexities of navigational processes in terms of the use of landmark, route, and survey strategies.

Keywords: Allocentric; Egocentric; Spatial navigation; Topographical orientation.

Fig. 1

Computerized Ecological Navigational Battery (LBS). a Route knowledge task. Participants are shown a video clip of a path filmed in a first-person perspective. At each crossroad, the video stops, and the participant has to choose the correct direction in which to go by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard. The video starts again only when the participant chooses the correct direction. b Landmark knowledge task. Participants have to recognize the crossroads encountered along the path among distractors. c Survey knowledge task. A map of the city area in which a printed blue line indicates the path is placed in front of the participant. Participants have to place on the map 23 postcards, derived from the screenshots of the crossroads, in the correct positions along the blue line. d Ordering task. The screenshots of the crossroads are presented in an unbroken sequence. Participants are asked to indicate whether the currently displayed crossroad followed or preceded the previous one along the path, pressing one of two keys (forward arrow: after or backward arrow: before)

Fig. 2

Ecological environment (EE). a Map of the path used in the route knowledge task. Participants has to learn a path consisting of 20 turning points balanced across left, right, and straight. The examiner shows the path. When back at the starting point, participants are asked to retrieve it. b Ordering task. Photographs of the landmark encountered along the path are presented in an unbroken sequence. Participants are asked to indicate, by pressing one of two keys (forward arrow: after or backward arrow: before), whether the currently displayed landmark followed or preceded the previous one along the path. If the landmark shown is the same as the previous one, they are asked not to press anything

Fig. 3

Modified survey knowledge task. The figure shows an example of the stimuli presented to the participant in the survey knowledge used in Study 2. The participant has to indicate whether the placeholder on the map corresponds to the actual position of the crossroad shown in the upper left corner