Computer-simulated environments hold promise for training people about real-world spaces. However, relatively little research has examined the role of user characteristics and abilities in determining the effectiveness of these virtual environments (VE's) for training spatial knowledge. A correlational study is reported in which the relationships between the following factors are explored: paper-and-pencil based assessments of spatial ability, ability to form an accurate spatial representation of a large realworld environment, gender, computer attitudes and experience, proficiency with the navigational interface of the virtual environment, and the ability to acquire and transfer spatial knowledge from a VE. Consistent with other studies, the relationship between psychometrically-assessed spatial ability and real-world environmental knowledge is found to be very weak. However, spatial ability is significantly associated with spatial knowledge acquisition in a virtual environment. Profic...

On average, males have reliably been found to outperform females on several traditional psychometric tests of spatial ability, especially those involving a component of mental rotation. The evidence is much less clear and complete with respect to performance on larger-scale and more ecologically valid tasks generally associated with geographic investigation, such as those involved in wayfinding, map use, and place learning. In this study, a community sample of 43 females and 36 males performed a large battery of spatial and geographic tasks. The battery included psychometric tests; tests of directly acquired spatial knowledge from a campus walk; map-learning tests; tests of extant geographic knowledge at local, regional, national, and international scales; tests of object-location memory; a verbal spatial task; and various self-report measures of spatial competence and style. Both univariate means tests and multivariate discriminant analyses largely agree on a comprehensive picture of the spatial abilities and styles of males and females. In particular, the study supports a “route-survey ” distinction between the sexes, and replicates previously published evidence of female superiority at a static object-location memory task. Males were found to most clearly outperform females on tests of newly acquired spatial knowledge of places from direct experience rather than tests of extant knowledge or map-derived knowledge; the latter tests revealed no clear differences

Spatial orientation can take place in three separate scales: scenes within an individual's visual field, surrounds including information to the front, side, and rear, and neighborhoods, that contain points not visible from the current location. When asked to orient in a surround people are especially sensitive to information to their fronts and backs. However if the surround has been experienced by viewing a map time to access information about a point increases with the angle between the forward direction and the queried point. As people become familiar with neighborhoods they first notice landmarks, then paths between landmarks, and finally develop configurational knowledge of the key locations. The last stage is not always reached, even after years of experience. On the average, people can orient themselves toward an unseen point in a neighborhood with an accuracy of about twenty degrees. However there are very large individual differences in orienting ability. People can acquire or...

Three experiments investigated spatial orientation in a virtual navigation task. Subjects had to adjust a homing vector indicating their end position relative to the origin of the path. It was demonstrated that sparse visual flow was sufficient for accurate path integration. Moreover, subjects were found to prefer a distinct egocentric or allocentric reference frame to solve the task. “Turners” reacted as if they had taken on the new orientation during turns of the path by mentally rotating their sagittal axis (egocentric frame). “Nonturners,” by contrast, tracked the new orientation without adopting it (allocentric frame). When instructed to use their nonpreferred reference frame, both groups displayed no decline in response accuracy relative to their preferred frame; even when presented with reaction formats based on either egoor allocentric coordinates, with format unpredictable on a trial, both groups responded highly accurately. These findings support the assumption of coexisting spatial representations during navigation.

Abstract: When designing navigation and other location-sensitive aids for older people, there are many important issues that need to be considered and questions that need to be answered. It is important that these are clearly identified as otherwise there is a risk that they will be glossed over. This paper maps out a design space for such aids, identifying and discussing several of the key issues for design for older people. Finally it examines challenges related to investigating navigation with older people.

SUMMARY—Amid ongoing public speculation about the reasons for sex differences in careers in science and mathematics, we present a consensus statement that is based on the best available scientific evidence. Sex differences in science and math achievement and ability are smaller for the mid-range of the abilities distribution than they are for those with the highest levels of achievement and ability. Males are more variable on most measures of quantitative and visuospatial ability, which necessarily results in more males at both high- and low-ability extremes; the reasons why males are often more variable remain elusive. Successful careers in math and science require many types of cognitive abilities. Females tend to excel in verbal abilities, with large differences between females and males found when assessments include writing

Geometry education has proven as one powerful means of improving spatial abilities, an important component of human intelligence. In the first part of this paper we summarize our development of a system that uses collaborative augmented reality as a medium for teaching, and uses 3D dynamic geometry to facilitate mathematics and geometry education. Our immersive collaborative educational application, specifically developed for geometry education, serves as the basis of a comprehensive evaluation study regarding its efficacy in training spatial abilities. The main contribution is the description of evaluation design including the test instruments, learning tasks and practical experiences with using our system for actual training of high school students. Results of a pre-study with spatial ability tests in high schools are presented. They point to interesting genderspecific differences of strategies when solving spatial ability tests, which have not been reported in literature before.

Spatial cognition and program development have both been examined using contrasting models. We suggest that sex-based differences in one’s perception of risk is the key to relating these models. Specifically, the survey map approach to navigation and the top-down development/comprehension strategy use similar and related high risk cognitive skills that males show a preference towards. Conversely, the route-based approach to navigation and the bottom-up development/comprehension strategy use similar and related low risk cognitive skills that women show a preference towards. On the assumption that programmers are consistent in their risk-taking behaviours, we believe that they will, as much as possible, tend to use the same strategy when performing program development and comprehension. In an experimental setting, we compare programmer’s performance on spatial cognition and program comprehension tasks. The correlations that we found suggest that programmers use equivalently risky strategies for program comprehension and spatial cognition. Thus, there is evidence that similar cognitive skills are used for spatial cognition and program comprehension/development, and that the similarities are a consequence of sex-based differences in risk-taking behaviour. 1

Paper maps are a proven means for navigating in unfamiliar environments, however, they do not prevent people from getting lost or taking unwanted detours. A well-known issue is interpreting the map’s geocentric content, which is known to become prone to errors when the map is not aligned to the environment. In this paper we report our investigation of providing a cue about the destination’s location from an egocentric perspective in order to improve the interpretation of the map. We used a vibrotactile belt to continuously indicate a destination’s direction relative to the user’s orientation. In an outdoor field study we compared the performance of map-based navigation with and without the added tactile cue. We found evidence that people take shorter routes, consult the map less often, and were less often disoriented with the tactile cue. Furthermore, females found the tactile cue more useful and used it more often.

We present evidence for an evolved sexually dimorphic adaptation that activates spatial memory and navigation skills in response to fruits, vegetables and other traditionally gatherable sessile food resources. In spite of extensive evidence for a male advantage on a wide variety of navigational tasks, we demonstrate that a simple but ecologically important shift in content can reverse this sex difference. This effect is predicted by and consistent with the theory that a sexual division in ancestral foraging labour selected for gathering-specific spatial mechanisms, some of which are sexually differentiated. The hypothesis that gathering-specific spatial adaptations exist in the human mind is further supported by our finding that spatial memory is preferentially engaged for resources with higher nutritional quality (e.g. caloric density). This result strongly suggests that the underlying mechanisms evolved in part as adaptations for efficient foraging. Together, these results demonstrate that human spatial cognition is content sensitive, domain specific and designed by natural selection to mesh with important regularities of the ancestral world.