Does active learning benefit spatial memory during navigation with restricted peripheral field?

Active and passive exploration for spatial knowledge acquisition: A meta-analysis

Literature reported mixed evidence on whether active exploration benefits spatial knowledge acquisition over passive exploration. Active spatial learning typically involves at least physical control of one's movement or navigation decision-making, while passive participants merely observe during exploration. To quantify the effects of active exploration in learning large-scale, unfamiliar environments, we analysed previous findings with the multi-level meta-analytical model. Potential moderators were identified and examined for their contributions to the variability in effect sizes. Of the 128 effect sizes retrieved from 33 experiments, we observed a small to moderate advantage of active exploration over passive observation. Important moderators include gender composition, decision-making, types of spatial knowledge, and matched visual information. We discussed the implications of the results along with the limitations.

Influence of Hand Tracking in Immersive Virtual Reality for Memory Assessment

Few works analyze the parameters inherent to immersive virtual reality (IVR) in applications for memory evaluation. Specifically, hand tracking adds to the immersion of the system, placing the user in the first person with full awareness of the position of their hands. Thus, this work addresses the influence of hand tracking in memory assessment with IVR systems. For this, an application based on activities of daily living was developed, where the user must remember the location of the elements. The data collected by the application are the accuracy of the answers and the response time; the participants are 20 healthy subjects who pass the MoCA test with an age range between 18 to 60 years of age; the application was evaluated with classic controllers and with the hand tracking of the Oculus Quest 2. After the experimentation, the participants carried out presence (PQ), usability (UMUX), and satisfaction (USEQ) tests. The results indicate no difference with statistical significance between both experiments; controller experiments have 7.08% higher accuracy and 0.27 ys. faster response time. Contrary to expectations, presence was 1.3% lower for hand tracking, and usability (0.18%) and satisfaction (1.43%) had similar results. The findings indicate no evidence to determine better conditions in the evaluation of memory in this case of IVR with hand tracking.

How can basic research on spatial cognition enhance the visual accessibility of architecture for people with low vision?

People with visual impairment often rely on their residual vision when interacting with their spatial environments. The goal of visual accessibility is to design spaces that allow for safe travel for the large and growing population of people who have uncorrectable vision loss, enabling full participation in modern society. This paper defines the functional challenges in perception and spatial cognition with restricted visual information and reviews a body of empirical work on low vision perception of spaces on both local and global navigational scales. We evaluate how the results of this work can provide insights into the complex problem that architects face in the design of visually accessible spaces.