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Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping

Received: 9 September 2014     Accepted: 13 November 2014     Published: 17 November 2014
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Abstract

A You-are-here map (YAH map) is a popular way to guide way-searchers (i.e. a person who is navigating in a more or less unknown area to a specific goal) through a designated area. With current technologies, information such as the current position and the optimal route to a chosen destination can be provided easily by marking the route in a map. In our study, we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of such marked routes on navigation performance in desktop virtual environments. 24 participants navigated through a 2 ½ D virtual environment. Navigation performance was measured by navigation time and number of deficiencies. In order to separate effects of cognitive maps from those of navigation performance, participants were asked to draw sketch maps after each trial. The results showed that participants who were shown the optimal route marked in the map beforehand, exhibited impaired knowledge of the environment and impaired navigation performance compared with those viewing the map without the route, independent of route complexity or viewing time of the map. Although map goodness was only slightly better when the route was not marked, the representation of the periphery was rated significantly better. Only route accuracy was better in the condition in which the route was marked. The results are interpreted in such way that basic impairments arise in cognitive mapping when reading a map of the designated area with a marked route, resulting in worse navigation performance.

Published in American Journal of Applied Psychology (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13
Page(s) 131-137
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Way-finding, Navigation, You-Are-Here Maps, Cognitive Map, Marked Routes

References
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[14] W. S. Albert, R. A. Rensink and J. M. Beusmans. Learning relative directions between landmarks in a desktop virtual environment. Spatial Cognition and Computation, 1: 131-144, 1999.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Sarah Lukas, Victor Mittelstaedt, Gabriel Olaru, Cedric Sachser, Julia Seibold, et al. (2014). Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping. American Journal of Applied Psychology, 3(6), 131-137. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13

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    ACS Style

    Sarah Lukas; Victor Mittelstaedt; Gabriel Olaru; Cedric Sachser; Julia Seibold, et al. Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping. Am. J. Appl. Psychol. 2014, 3(6), 131-137. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13

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    AMA Style

    Sarah Lukas, Victor Mittelstaedt, Gabriel Olaru, Cedric Sachser, Julia Seibold, et al. Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping. Am J Appl Psychol. 2014;3(6):131-137. doi: 10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13,
      author = {Sarah Lukas and Victor Mittelstaedt and Gabriel Olaru and Cedric Sachser and Julia Seibold and Anke Huckauf},
      title = {Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping},
      journal = {American Journal of Applied Psychology},
      volume = {3},
      number = {6},
      pages = {131-137},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajap.20140306.13},
      abstract = {A You-are-here map (YAH map) is a popular way to guide way-searchers (i.e. a person who is navigating in a more or less unknown area to a specific goal) through a designated area. With current technologies, information such as the current position and the optimal route to a chosen destination can be provided easily by marking the route in a map. In our study, we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of such marked routes on navigation performance in desktop virtual environments. 24 participants navigated through a 2 ½ D virtual environment. Navigation performance was measured by navigation time and number of deficiencies. In order to separate effects of cognitive maps from those of navigation performance, participants were asked to draw sketch maps after each trial. The results showed that participants who were shown the optimal route marked in the map beforehand, exhibited impaired knowledge of the environment and impaired navigation performance compared with those viewing the map without the route, independent of route complexity or viewing time of the map. Although map goodness was only slightly better when the route was not marked, the representation of the periphery was rated significantly better. Only route accuracy was better in the condition in which the route was marked. The results are interpreted in such way that basic impairments arise in cognitive mapping when reading a map of the designated area with a marked route, resulting in worse navigation performance.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping
    AU  - Sarah Lukas
    AU  - Victor Mittelstaedt
    AU  - Gabriel Olaru
    AU  - Cedric Sachser
    AU  - Julia Seibold
    AU  - Anke Huckauf
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13
    T2  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
    JF  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
    JO  - American Journal of Applied Psychology
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    EP  - 137
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-5672
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajap.20140306.13
    AB  - A You-are-here map (YAH map) is a popular way to guide way-searchers (i.e. a person who is navigating in a more or less unknown area to a specific goal) through a designated area. With current technologies, information such as the current position and the optimal route to a chosen destination can be provided easily by marking the route in a map. In our study, we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of such marked routes on navigation performance in desktop virtual environments. 24 participants navigated through a 2 ½ D virtual environment. Navigation performance was measured by navigation time and number of deficiencies. In order to separate effects of cognitive maps from those of navigation performance, participants were asked to draw sketch maps after each trial. The results showed that participants who were shown the optimal route marked in the map beforehand, exhibited impaired knowledge of the environment and impaired navigation performance compared with those viewing the map without the route, independent of route complexity or viewing time of the map. Although map goodness was only slightly better when the route was not marked, the representation of the periphery was rated significantly better. Only route accuracy was better in the condition in which the route was marked. The results are interpreted in such way that basic impairments arise in cognitive mapping when reading a map of the designated area with a marked route, resulting in worse navigation performance.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 6
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

  • Institute of Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

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