Accuracy and Coordination of Spatial Frames of Reference during the Exploration of Virtual Maps: Interest for Orientation and Mobility of Blind People?
Even if their spatial reasoning capabilities remain quite similar to those of sighted people, blind people encounter difficulties in getting distant information from their surroundings. Thus, whole body displacements, tactile map consultations, or auditory solutions are needed to establish physical contacts with their environment. Therefore, the accuracy of nonvisual spatial representations heavily relies upon the efficiency of exploration strategies and the ability to coordinate egocentric and allocentric spatial frames of reference. This study aims to better understand the mechanisms of this coordination without vision by analyzing cartographic exploration strategies and assessing their influence on mental spatial representations. Six blind sailors were immersed within a virtual haptic and auditory maritime environment. They were required to learn the layout of the map. Their movements were recorded and we identified some exploration strategies. Then they had to estimate the directions of six particular seamarks in aligned and misaligned situations. Better accuracy and coordination were obtained when participants used the “central point of reference” strategy. Our discussion relative to the articulation between geometric enduring representations and salient transient perceptions provides implications on map reading techniques and on mobility and orientation programs for blind people. 1. Introduction Movement plays a major role in the acquisition of environmental knowledge since it is the only way we have of interacting with the world [1]. Therefore movements performed when people explore a novel environment may influence their performance in spatial tasks. As a consequence, understanding the relationships between exploratory movement patterns and environmental knowledge remains crucial in particular for blind people who can never get direct visual information. Thus the main goal of this study is to identify efficient cartographic exploration strategies in order to propose their inclusion in teaching programs devoted to mobility and orientation of blind people facing navigation tasks. Navigation in the physical environment consists in whole body displacements to reach a spatial goal which can be directly perceived or located beyond the immediate perceptual field. Even if certain objects can be considered as attractors or repellers that trigger guidance mechanisms of the participant through the environment [2], navigation remains possible when these particular landmarks are unavailable to the participant. In this latter case, other much more complex
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