The impact of night vision goggles on way-finding performance and the acquisition of spatial knowledge.
OBJECTIVE
This study examined the effects of night vision goggles (NVGs) on navigation and way-finding performance and the acquisition of spatial knowledge.


BACKGROUND
Although numerous studies have examined the effects of NVGs on visual perception, few have examined the effects of using NVGs on the acquisition and expression of spatial cognition.


METHODS
Participants learned the environment through active navigation and way finding, searching for targets within a life-sized maze with or without NVGs. Knowledge of the environment was then tested with two spatial memory tests.


RESULTS
Findings show that navigation and way finding with NVGs appear to be harder, as indicated by longer navigation times and additional, unnecessary turns, than they are without NVGs. Moreover, change in navigation performance over the course of the way-finding trials varied as a function of group assignment indicating that NVGs influenced the learning process. NVG users demonstrated a significant decrease in navigation times earlier as well as significant decreases in navigational legs compared with the control group. In judging the positions of objects relative to target objects in different rooms in the maze, performance was better for participants without NVGs than for those with NVGs. In a map-drawing task, participants in the NVG group were more likely to position objects incorrectly and to receive worse scores than the controls.


CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate that NVGs affected not only spatial navigation and way-finding performance but also the acquisition of spatial knowledge.


CONCLUSIONS
These degradations in spatial knowledge should be considered in operational planning and NVG training programs.
Gauthier
Michelle Sylvia
MS
Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. gauthiermi1@yahoo.com
Parush
Avi
A
Macuda
Todd
T
Tang
Denis
D
Craig
Gregory
G
Jennings
Sion
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003623:Dark Adaptation; D003624:Darkness; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004777:Environment; D005133:Eye Movements; D005139:Eyeglasses; D019416:Head Movements; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013028:Space Perception; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014796:Visual Perception