| Two experiments investigated the impact of a transparent visualization of a building on spatial learning from an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment, and demonstrated a methodology for measuring the extent of participants' acquisition of spatial knowledge. Participants learned the location of twenty-one objects within a VR building, to criteria, in one of two training conditions---one with transparent walls and floors, the other with opaque walls and floors. In Experiment 1 walkthroughs of the building were followed by a speeded response task, to test the accessibility of mental objects. Participants responded to pictures of two objects from the building, and were asked to indicate whether the objects were from the same room, or from different rooms. A regression analysis revealed that the route distance between objects predicted participants' response times for same/different decisions, for both the Opaque and Transparent training groups. However, drawings of the building indicated that participants in the Transparent training condition had a better understanding of spatial relationships in the building than participants in the Opaque training condition did.; In Experiment 2, following the building walkthroughs, participants performed a speeded response task in which they were asked to indicate the direction of one building object, relative to another. A regression analysis revealed that route distance predicted directional response times for participants in the Opaque training condition, and Euclidean (straight line) distance predicted directional response times for participants trained in the Transparent model. In addition, a ""room-effect"" was evident for participants trained in the Opaque group, in which error rates for directional responses were higher, when object pairs were from different rooms. There was no difference in accuracy of directional responses between same-room and different-room object pairs, for participants trained in the Transparency model. These results are discussed within the context of the Landmark-Route-Survey taxonomy of spatial learning (Siegel and White, 1975). |
