For efficient navigational search, humans require full physical movement, but not a rich visual scene.
During navigation, humans combine visual information from their surroundings with body-based information from the translational and rotational components of their movement. Theories of navigation focus on the role of visual and rotational body-based information, even though experimental evidence shows they are not sufficient for complex spatial tasks. To investigate the contribution of all three sources of information, we asked participants to search a computer-generated virtual room for targets. Participants were provided with only visual information or with visual information supplemented with body-based information for all movement (walk group) or rotational movement (rotate group). The walk group performed the task with near-perfect efficiency, irrespective of whether a rich or impoverished visual scene was provided. The visual-only and rotate groups were significantly less efficient and frequently searched parts of the room at least twice. These results suggest that full physical movement plays a critical role in navigational search, but only moderate visual detail is required.
Ruddle
Roy A
RA
School of Computing, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom. royr@comp.leeds.ac.uk
Lessels
Simon
S
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012399:Rotation; D014796:Visual Perception