The Effects Of Mobile Navigation Usage On Environmental Spatial Cognition And Wayfinding Performance

Nowadays,mobile navigation software has been widely developed and applied,and people have shown different spatial knowledge acquisition and wayfinding performance in the use of mobile navigation.This raises the interesting question that how mobile navigation affects the individual's environmental spatial cognition development and wayfinding performance.Although there is still no generally accepted theoretical framework for describing spatial cognition development,previous studies using spatial cognition-related scales and task tests have shown that,compared to paper maps or practical environments,the use of mobile navigation can damage individual spatial knowledge acquisition,and its improvement on wayfinding performance remains to be confirmed.However,limitations can be found in these studies: the mobile navigation adopted in previous studies differs from the current versions that are based on smart devices in terms of screen size,function,information richness,etc.;studies on the presentation mode and usage pattern of navigation are still relatively rare;subjects passively receive navigation information instead of actively selecting and using it.Therefore,it is possible that the relationship between mobile navigation,environmental spatial cognition,and wayfinding performance has changed.This research aims to explore the relationship between the three through questionnaire surveys and virtual environment experiments.Research One first generated the revised Chinese version of the “Questionnaire on Spatial Strategies” and employed it to measure the environmental abilities(Research 1a);then based on a sample of 550 people,the relationship between potential navigation-related influencing factors,self-evaluated environmental abilities,and navigationassisted wayfinding performance was investigated,in which possible influencing factors were selected to analyze corresponding effects(Research 1b).On the foundation of Research One,Research Two built a virtual environment to record the subjects' navigation usage and wayfinding performance and measured their spatial knowledge by a variety of tasks to explore the effects of factors like duration of usage,presentation mode of navigation(north-up map vs.eye-aligned map),size of scale,and location of use.The major results of research are as follows:(1)Visual/auditory navigation,2D/3D/panoramic navigation had a weak correlation with spatial cognition;usage frequency,the use of eye-aligned maps and large scale maps(partial maps),location of usage,and the usage patterns that are highly reliant upon navigation had a significant negative correlation with spatial ability;the use of northup map and small scale(total map)and other use-patterns of navigation,on the contrary,showed a significant positive correlation with spatial ability.(2)Usage frequency,location and purpose of usage presented a highly positive correlation with wayfinding performance;usage patterns that are less reliant upon navigation were negatively correlated with wayfinding performance.(3)Both the total duration of usage and the size of scale showed no significant effect on spatial knowledge acquisition;navigation usage at intersections could promote individuals' route-learning,but navigation usage at non-intersections could damage individuals' route knowledge.(4)The experience of navigation usage was conducive to individuals' wayfinding performance;compared to eye-aligned maps,north-up maps tended to reduce individuals' wayfinding performance and the failure times of wayfinding played a mediating role between them;navigation usage at intersections also increaseed the distance of wayfinding.The research results prove that mobile navigation usage does not necessarily damage individuals' environmental spatial cognition,but it may affect the self-evaluation of spatial ability.At the same time,using mobile navigation can improve wayfinding performance.To be specific,navigation usage at intersections can promote the individual's route-learning,but navigation usage at non-intersections is to the disadvantage of both route-learning and wayfinding performance;north-up maps may be better than eye-aligned maps in spatial knowledge learning,but using eyealigned maps can reduce errors,and thus shows higher wayfinding performance compared to north-up maps;compared with large-scale maps,small-scale maps are more conducive to spatial knowledge learning,but further verification is required.This research updates the original view that “mobile navigation usage can damage spatial cognition”,provides evidence for mobile navigation's promotion of wayfinding performance,and serves as a reference for the design and efficient employment of mobile navigation applications.