Putting New Zealand on the map: Investigating cognitive maps in human navigation using virtual environments

Machines will replace therapists and counsellors. This was the confident prediction made a decade ago. In this article, I discuss the inherent limitations of machines as conversationalists that have prevented the prediction from coming true. Machines can, however, be exploited to assist therapy and I consider the following digital tools: test administration; managing procedural, symptom-relieving cognitive–behavioural therapies; providing virtual environments for immersive behavioural therapies and for e-learning; and assisting training through automated discourse analysis and the use of cognitive maps.

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Pointing Errors in Non-Metric Virtual Environments

10.1101/273532 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alexander Muryy ◽

Andrew Glennerster

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Reference Frame ◽

Cognitive Map ◽

Immersive Virtual Reality ◽

Local Reference Frame ◽

Human Navigation ◽

Pointing Errors ◽

Representation Of Space ◽

Local Reference

AbstractThere have been suggestions that human navigation may depend on representations that have no metric, Euclidean interpretation but that hypothesis remains contentious. An alternative is that observers build a consistent 3D representation of space. Using immersive virtual reality, we measured the ability of observers to point to targets in mazes that had zero, one or three ‘wormholes’ – regions where the maze changed in configuration (invisibly). In one model, we allowed the configuration of the maze to vary to best explain the pointing data; in a second model we also allowed the local reference frame to be rotated through 90, 180 or 270 degrees. The latter model outperformed the former in the wormhole conditions, inconsistent with a Euclidean cognitive map.

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From repeating routes to planning novel routes: the impact of landmarks and ageing on route integration and cognitive mapping

Psychological Research ◽

10.1007/s00426-020-01401-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ramona Grzeschik ◽

Christopher Hilton ◽

Ruth C. Dalton ◽

Irma Konovalova ◽

Ella Cotterill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Virtual Environments ◽

Cognitive Mapping ◽

Spatial Configuration ◽

Cognitive Maps ◽

Performance Criterion ◽

Detailed Knowledge ◽

Cognitive Ageing ◽

Distinctive Features ◽

Test Route ◽

The Impact

Abstract The integration of intersecting routes is an important process for the formation of cognitive maps and thus successful navigation. Here we present a novel task to study route integration and the effects that landmark information and cognitive ageing have on this process. We created two virtual environments, each comprising five places and one central intersection but with different landmark settings: in the Identical Landmark environment, the intersection contained visually monotonic features whereas the intersection contained visually distinctive features in the Different Landmarks environment. In both environments young and older participants were presented with two short routes that both traversed through the shared intersection. To test route integration, participants were asked to either repeat the learning routes, to navigate the routes from the destination to the starting place or to plan novel routes. As expected, results demonstrate better performance when repeating or retracing routes than when planning novel routes. Performance was better in younger than older participants and in the Different Landmark environment which does not require detailed knowledge of the spatial configuration of all places in the environment. A subgroup of the older participants who performed lower on a screening test for cognitive impairments could not successfully complete the experiment or did not reach the required performance criterion. These results demonstrate that strategically placed landmarks support the integration of route knowledge into spatial representations that allow for goal-dependent flexible navigation behaviour and that earliest signs of atypical cognitive ageing affect this process of route integration.

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