title: Spatial updating in superimposed real and virtual environments.
abstract: Wang (2004) showed that people do not always simultaneously update their relationships to real and imagined environments in a dual-environment situation. Employing the same paradigm, we examined whether spatial updating operates on virtual reality as it does on a real or fictitious environment. Participants learned target locations in a real room and a virtual kitchen. Then they turned to face targets either in the room or in the kitchen, while blindfolded, and pointed to the targets before and after turning. Participants kept track of their orientation in both environments equally efficiently, regardless of explicit instructions. In contrast, when the real environment was described verbally but not directly perceived, participants automatically updated the virtual kitchen but not the room. These results suggest that people automatically update a virtual environment as they do a real one when the two environments are superimposed. The automaticity of spatial updating is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA. xwan@alumni.illinois.edu
authors.forename: Xiaoang Irene
authors.initials: XI
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Ranxiao Frances
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Crowell
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007699:Kinesthesis; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time; D011936:Reality Testing; D012683:Sensory Deprivation; D012931:Social Environment; D014584:User-Computer Interface