title: Distance comparisons in virtual reality: effects of path, context, and age.
abstract: In this large scale, individual differences study (N = 521), the effects of cardinal axes of an environment and the path taken between locations on distance comparisons were assessed. The main goal was to identify if and to what extent previous findings in simple 2D tasks can be generalized to a more dynamic, three-dimensional virtual reality environment. Moreover, effects of age and gender were assessed. After memorizing the locations of six objects in a circular environment, participants were asked to judge the distance between objects they encountered. Results indicate that categorization (based on the cardinal axes) was present, as distances within one quadrant were judged as being closer together, even when no visual indication of the cardinal axes was given. Moreover, strong effects of the path taken between object locations were found; objects that were near on the path taken were perceived as being closer together than objects that were further apart on this path, regardless of the metric distance between the objects. Males outperformed females in distance comparison, but did not differ in the extent of the categorization and path effects. Age also affected performance; the categorization and path effects were highly similar across the age range tested, but the general ability to estimate distances does show a clear pattern increase during development and decrease with aging.
authors: Health, Medical, and Neuropsychology, Leiden University , Leiden, Netherlands.
authors: Ineke J M
authors: IJ
authors: van der Ham
authors: Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University , Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors: Heleen
authors: H
authors: Baalbergen
authors: Methodology and Statistics, Social Science, Utrecht University , Utrecht, Netherlands ; Southampton Statistical Science Research Institute, University of Southampton , Southampton, UK.
authors: Peter G M
authors: PG
authors: van der Heijden
authors: Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University , Utrecht, Netherlands ; Department of Neurology, Utrecht University Medical Center , Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors: Albert
authors: A
authors: Postma
authors: Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University , Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors: Merel
authors: M
authors: Braspenning
authors: Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University , Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors: Milan N A
authors: MN
authors: van der Kuil
keywords: age; context; distance comparison; gender; path; virtual reality