Liu Xianyun, Zhang Yanan, Sun Baihu
Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jul 15;15(7):959. doi: 10.3390/bs15070959.
Spatial memory is a critical component of spatial cognition, particularly in unfamiliar environments. As navigation systems become integral to daily life, understanding how individuals with varying spatial abilities respond to different navigation modes is increasingly important. This study employed a virtual driving environment to examine how participants with varying spatial abilities (good or poor) performed under three navigation modes, namely visual, audio, and combined audio-visual navigation modes. A total of 78 participants were divided into two groups, good sense of direction (G-SOD) and poor sense of direction (P-SOD), according to their Santa Barbara Sense of Direction (SBSOD) scores. They were randomly assigned to one of the three navigation modes (visual, audio, audio-visual). Participants followed navigation cues and simulated driving behavior to the end point twice during the learning phase, then completed the route retracing task, recognizing scenes task and recognizing the order task. Significant main effects were found for both SOD group and navigation mode, with no interaction. G-SOD participants outperformed P-SOD participants in route retracing task. Audio navigation mode led to better performance in tasks involving complex spatial decisions, such as turn intersections and recognizing the order. The accuracy of recognizing scenes did not significantly differ across SOD groups or navigation modes. These findings suggest that audio navigation mode may reduce visual distraction and support more effective spatial encoding and that individual spatial abilities influence navigation performance independently of guidance type. These findings highlight the importance of aligning navigation modalities with users' cognitive profiles and support the development of adaptive navigation systems that accommodate individual differences in spatial ability.
空间记忆是空间认知的关键组成部分，在不熟悉的环境中尤为如此。随着导航系统成为日常生活中不可或缺的一部分，了解具有不同空间能力的个体如何对不同的导航模式做出反应变得越来越重要。本研究采用虚拟驾驶环境来考察具有不同空间能力（良好或较差）的参与者在三种导航模式下的表现，即视觉、音频和视听组合导航模式。根据他们的圣巴巴拉方向感（SBSOD）得分，共有78名参与者被分为两组，方向感良好组（G-SOD）和方向感较差组（P-SOD）。他们被随机分配到三种导航模式之一（视觉、音频、视听）。在学习阶段，参与者遵循导航提示并模拟驾驶行为到达终点两次，然后完成路线回溯任务、场景识别任务和顺序识别任务。发现SOD组和导航模式均有显著的主效应，但没有交互作用。在路线回溯任务中，G-SOD组参与者的表现优于P-SOD组参与者。音频导航模式在涉及复杂空间决策的任务中表现更好，如转弯路口和顺序识别。场景识别的准确性在不同的SOD组或导航模式之间没有显著差异。这些发现表明，音频导航模式可能会减少视觉干扰，并支持更有效的空间编码，而且个体空间能力独立于引导类型影响导航性能。这些发现强调了使导航方式与用户认知特征相匹配的重要性，并支持开发适应个体空间能力差异的自适应导航系统。
