How best to orient travellers with acquired brain injury: A comparison of three directional prompts.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

To compare the effects of written landmark, cardinal and left/right street directions on navigational success at the beginning of a walking route.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Matched control group comparison design.

METHODS AND PROCEDURES

This study compared navigational performance of 18 adults with acquired brain injury (ABI) to controls matched for gender, age and education. Participants followed written directions with landmark, cardinal or left/right directions at each of four locations. Dependent measures included accuracy, directness, stated confidence and preference.

MAIN RESULTS

Participants with ABI demonstrated greater errors and hesitancy than controls when presented with cardinal and left/right directions. Both groups performed equally well with landmark directions. All participants stated preference for landmark directions. Participants with ABI were more likely to guess or become confused when following cardinal or left/right directions.

CONCLUSIONS

Landmarks served as a performance equalizer between groups for navigational performance at the start of a walking route. Implications for the design of navigational assistive tools and future research are discussed.