Weisberg Steven M, Badgio Daniel, Chatterjee Anjan
Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2018 May;44(5):667-679. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000472. Epub 2017 Nov 9.
Knowing where north is provides a navigator with invaluable information for learning and recalling a space, particularly in places with limited navigational cues, like complex indoor environments. Although north is effectively used by orienteers, pilots, and military personnel, very little is known about whether nonexpert populations can or will use north to create an accurate representation of an indoor space. In the current study, we taught people 2 nonoverlapping routes through a complex indoor environment, with which they were not familiar-a university hospital with few windows and several turns. Along 1 route, they wore a vibrotactile compass on their arm, which vibrated continuously indicating the direction of north. Along the other route, they were only told where north was at the start of the route. At the beginning, the end, and back at the beginning of each route, participants pointed to well-known landmarks in the surrounding city and campus (external landmarks), and newly learned landmarks in the hospital (internal landmarks). We found improved performance with the compass only for external landmarks, driven by people's use of the availability of north to orient these judgments. No such improved orientation occurred for the internal landmarks. These findings reveal the utility of vibrotactile compasses for learning new indoor spaces. We speculate that such cues help users map new spaces onto familiar spaces or to familiar reference frames. (PsycINFO Database Record
知道北方在哪里能为导航者提供有关学习和回忆空间的宝贵信息，尤其是在导航线索有限的地方，比如复杂的室内环境。尽管定向越野运动员、飞行员和军事人员会有效地利用北方，但对于非专业人群是否能够或愿意利用北方来准确构建室内空间的表征，我们却知之甚少。在当前的研究中，我们教人们在一个他们不熟悉的复杂室内环境中走两条不重叠的路线，这是一家窗户很少且有几个转弯的大学医院。沿着其中一条路线，他们手臂上戴着一个振动触觉指南针，它持续振动以指示北方的方向。沿着另一条路线，他们只在路线开始时被告知北方在哪里。在每条路线的起点、终点以及回到起点时，参与者要指出周围城市和校园中知名的地标（外部地标）以及医院中新学到的地标（内部地标）。我们发现，仅对于外部地标，使用指南针能提高表现，这是由人们利用北方的可用性来确定这些判断的方向所驱动的。对于内部地标，并没有出现这样的定向改善。这些发现揭示了振动触觉指南针在学习新的室内空间方面的效用。我们推测，这样的线索有助于用户将新空间映射到熟悉的空间或熟悉的参考框架上。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
