Lingwood, J., Blades, M., Farran, E.K. et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Using virtual environments to investigate wayfinding in 8- to 12-year-olds and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 166. pp. 178-189. ISSN 0022-0965
Abstract
Wayfinding is the ability to learn and recall a route through an environment. Theories of wayfinding suggest that for children to learn a route successfully, they must have repeated experience of it, but in this experiment we investigated whether children could learn a route after only a single experience of the route. A total of 80 participants from the United Kingdom in four groups of 20 8-year-olds, 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults were shown a route through a 12-turn maze in a virtual environment. At each junction, there was a unique object that could be used as a land- mark. Participants were ‘‘walked” along the route just once (with- out any verbal prompts) and then were asked to retrace the route from the start without any help. Nearly three quarters of the 12- year-olds, half of the 10-year-olds, and a third of the 8-year-olds retraced the route without any errors the first time they traveled it on their own. This finding suggests that many young children can learn routes, even with as many as 12 turns, very quickly and without the need for repeated experience. The implications for theories of wayfinding that emphasize the need for extensive experience are discussed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Wayfinding; Route learning; Virtual environment; Landmarks; Spatial Cognition; Navigation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number ECONOMIC & SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL RES-062-0005 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2017 15:11 |
Last Modified: | 12 Jun 2018 13:49 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.012 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.012 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:121626 |