Laboratory Disability and Nervous System.
Neuropsychology. 2019 Nov;33(8):1045-1056. doi: 10.1037/neu0000578. Epub 2019 Jul 25.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID), such as those with Down syndrome (DS), sometimes get lost, even when walking familiar routes. Among the spatial cognition models addressing the dynamic construction of spatial representations, the theoretical framework of Siegel and White (1975) remains a reference. The aim of this work is to use virtual reality technology to (a) elucidate the spatial deficits associated with ID in reference to the Siegel and White framework and (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of 3 wayfinding assistive procedures (signified landmarks, arrows, and elevated views).
We have developed a virtual environment that represents a replica of the district near Bordeaux hospital, by using Virtools software. The subject is instructed to learn a path and reproduce it by using a joystick. Four experimental learning conditions were compared. The participant observed the path either from ground level without support ("control" condition), or with direction support ("arrows" condition), or with landmark support ("signified landmarks" conditions) or from a height of 4 m in the "elevated view" condition.
The results revealed that DS participants achieved significantly lower scores than typically developing children for the wayfinding, route level, and configurational level tasks. The performance of DS participants was enhanced only in the signified landmarks condition (condition in which the landmark had a bright color).
Such results may be particularly fruitful to define appropriate digital aids to support people with DS to travel more independently in unfamiliar environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
智障人士（如唐氏综合征患者）有时会迷路，即使是在熟悉的路线上行走。在解决空间表示动态构建的空间认知模型中，Siegel 和 White（1975）的理论框架仍然是一个参考。本研究旨在使用虚拟现实技术：（a）根据 Siegel 和 White 的框架阐明与 ID 相关的空间缺陷；（b）评估 3 种寻路辅助程序（地标、箭头和高处视野）的有效性。
我们使用 Virtools 软件开发了一个代表波尔多医院附近地区的虚拟环境。通过操纵杆，要求参与者学习并再现路径。比较了四种实验学习条件。参与者观察路径时，要么在没有支撑的地面上（“对照”条件），要么在有方向支撑的情况下（“箭头”条件），要么在有地标支撑的情况下（“地标”条件），要么在 4 米高的“高处视野”条件下。
结果表明，唐氏综合征患者在寻路、路线和构型水平任务上的得分明显低于发育正常的儿童。只有在地标具有鲜艳颜色的地标条件下，唐氏综合征患者的表现才得到提高。
这些结果对于定义适当的数字辅助工具来支持唐氏综合征患者在不熟悉的环境中更独立地旅行可能特别有成效。（APA，2019 年，所有权利保留）。
