Use of Visual Cues by Orienteers: An Analysis of Interview Data

Abstract

Visual cues are critical elements in the successful navigation of off-road terrain. To examine the importance of visual cues and their use in navigational strategies, sixteen interviews were conducted with orienteers and military scouts using a semi-structured interview technique known as the Critical Incident Technique. Each interviewee described a specific navigation incident in which his (her) skill had been needed to navigate successfully. Probe questions were then used to elicit visual cues and strategies used by these off-road navigators to solve their navigation problems. The verbal protocols were analyzed in a split-half coding procedure. A randomly selected eight interviews were coded to determine the types of visual cues and strategies used. These categories were then used to code the remaining eight interviews. The five categories of visual cues used by the first half of the sample were the same used by the second half. Four categories of strategies were coded from the first half of the sample. These strategies applied to 94% of the strategies used by the second half of the sample. A subset of the verbal protocols was also coded using SHAPA 2, a verbal protocol analysis package. SHAPA was advantageous as a flexible code development system; however, data entry time was greater than for coding directly from the paper transcripts.