Users immersed in virtual environments (VEs) are prone to disorientation and have difficulty transferring spatial knowledge to the real world. A single experiment investigated the contribution of inadequate proprioception to this problem by providing participants with interfaces to a virtual environment that either did (a walking interface) or did not (a joystick) afford proprioceptive feedback similar to that obtained during real walking. The 2 groups explored a large, complex building using a low-resolution head-mounted display. Later, their navigational abilities within the actual building were compared with those of control groups who either studied a map of the building, walked through the real building, or received no prior training. The walking interface conveyed no benefit on an orientation task performed during training in the VE, but it did benefit participants when they tried to find objects in the real world. Actual or potential applications include simulations of environments that are normally explored on foot but cannot be readily visited, such as infantry battlefields and facilities contaminated with chemical, biological, or radiological materials.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Airey, J. M., Rohlf, J. H., & Brooks, F. P., Jr. (1990). Toward image realism with interactive update rates in complex virtual building environments. Computer Graphics, 24(2), 41–48.
2.
Baker, R. R. (1980). Goal orientation by blindfolded humans after long-distance displacement: Possible involvement of a magnetic sense. Science, 210, 555–557.
3.
Bles, W. (1981). Stepping around: Circular vection and coriolis effects. In J. Long & A. Baddeley (Eds.), Attention and Performance IX (pp. 47–61). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
4.
Böök, A., & Gärling, T. (1981). Maintenance of orientation during locomotion in unfamiliar environments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 7, 995–1006.
5.
Christiansen, C., Alreu, B. C., & Huffman, R. K. (1996). Creating a virtual environment for brain injury rehabilitation and research: A preliminary report. Journal of Medicine and Virtual Reality, 1, 6–9.
6.
Cooper, E. H., & Pantle, A. J. (1967). The total-time hypothesis in verbal learning. Psychological Bulletin, 68, 221–234.
7.
Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671–684.
8.
Durlach, N. I., & Mavor, A. S. (1995). Virtual reality: scientific and technological challenges. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
9.
Gallistel, C. R. (1990). The organization of learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
10.
Gould, J. L. (1986). The locale map of honey bees: Do insects have cognitive maps?Science, 232, 861–863.
11.
Iwata, H., & Matsuda, K. (1992). Haptic walkthrough simulator: Its design and application to studies on cognitive map. Presented at the International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence.
12.
Lampton, D. R., Knerr, B. W., Goldberg, S. L., Bliss, J. P., Moshell, J. M., Blau, B. S. & Brian, S. (1995). The virtual environment performance assessment battery (VEPAB): Development and evaluation (Tech. Report 1029). Orlando, FL: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
13.
Loomis, J. M., Klatzky, R. L., Golledge, R. G., Cicinelli, J. G., Pellegrino, J. W., & Fry, P. A. (1993). Nonvisual navigation by blind and sighted: Assessment of path integration ability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 73–91.
14.
Magee, L. M. (1997). Virtual reality simulator (VRS) for training ship handling skills. In R. J. Seidel & P. R. Chatelier (Eds.), Virtual reality, Training's future? Perspectives on virtual reality and related emerging technologies. Proceedings of NATO Defense Research Group (pp. 19–29). New York: Plenum.
15.
Mittelstaedt, H., & Mittelstaedt, M. L. (1982). Homing by path integration. In F. Papi & H. G. Wallraff (Eds.), Avian navigation (pp. 290–297). New York: Springer-Verlag.
16.
Potegal, M. (1982). Vestibular and neostriatal contributions to spatial organization. In M. Potegal (Ed.), Spatial abilities: Development and physiological foundations (pp. 361–387). New York: Academic.
17.
Presson, C. C., DeLange, N., & Hazelrigg, M. D. (1989). Orientation specificity in spatial memory: What makes a path different from a map of the path?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 887–897.
18.
Presson, C. C., & Hazelrigg, M. D. (1984). Building spatial representations through primary and secondary learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 10, 716–722.
19.
Psotka, J. (1995). Immersive training systems: Virtual reality and education and training. Instructional Science, 23, 405–431.
20.
Psotka, J., & Lewis, S. A. (1995). Effects of field of view on judgments of self-location: Distance estimations using planview representations as a function of observer eye station points (ESP) and geometric field of view (FOVg). World Wide Web http://205.130.63.7/fovtr.html.
21.
Psotka, J., & Ressler, S. (1994). Immersion and navigation in the open virtual reality testbed. World Wide Web http://immersion.ari.fed.us/ovrt.html.
22.
Regian, J. W., & Shebilske, W. (1992). Virtual reality: An instructional medium for visual-spatial tasks. Journal of Communications, 42, 136–149.
23.
Schmuckler, M. A. (1995). Self-knowledge of body position: Integration of perceptual and action system information. In P. Rochat (Ed.), The self in infancy: Theory and research (pp. 221–241). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
24.
Slater, M., Usoh, M., & Steed, A. (1995). Taking steps: The influence of a walking technique on presence in virtual reality. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2, 201–219.
25.
Taylor, M. M., & Creelman, C. D. (1967). PEST: Efficient estimates on probability functions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 41, 782–787.
26.
Thorndyke, P. W., & Hayes-Roth, B. (1982). Differences in spatial knowledge acquired from maps and navigation. Cognitive Psychology, 14, 560–589.
27.
Witmer, B. G., Bailey, J. H., & Knerr, B. W. (1996). Virtual spaces and real world places: Transfer of route knowledge. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 45, 413–428.
