Use of virtual reality for spatial knowledge transfer: effects of passive/active exploration mode in simple and complex routes for three different recall tasks

• Authors: Grégory Wallet;Hélène Sauzéon;Jérôme Rodrigues;Bernard N'Kaoua
• Venue: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM symposium on Virtual reality software and technology
• Year: 2008

The use of virtual reality in the area of spatial cognition raises the question of the quality of learning transfer from a virtual to a real environment. Among the challenges, one is to determine the best cognitive aids to improve the quality of transfer and the conditions in which this is best achieved. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of passive and active exploration mode on quality of transfer in three different spatial recall tasks when the route was simple or complex. Ninety subjects (45 men and 45 women) participated in the experiment. Spatial learning was evaluated by 3 tasks: Wayfinding (route reproduction in reality), Sketch-mapping (free hand drawing) and Scene-classification (make a series of pictures in chronological order) in the context of the district of Bordeaux. In the Wayfinding task, active learning in a Virtual Environment (VE) increased performances compared to the passive learning condition, irrespective of the route complexity factor. In the Sketch-mapping task, active learning in a VE induced better performances than the passive condition, but only for complex routes. In the Picture classification task, no benefit was observed from active learning with both simple and complex routes. These results are discussed in terms of the functional demands of the three tasks and the route complexity dimension.