Yadurshana Sivashankar

Hélène Sauzéon

Myra A Fernandes

Active and Visually-Guided Navigation Benefit Route Memory

• Spatial memory is enhanced when encoding is active rather than passive 1 • Active encoding consists of physical movement and cognitive components such as attention, mental manipulation of maps, and decision-making 2 • Recent findings suggests that spatial memory suffers when we rely on an AI device 3,4 , like a GPS, to make decisions about our path of travel

  We compared memory for spatial routes, encoded using navigation strategies that differentially engaged decision-making about the path of travel Active: Decided the path of travel to find gold-star Guided: Followed a visual cue to the gold-star Passive: Watched a 360 video in VR of someone else's travel to gold-star -did not initiate movement Procedure: Participants (n=50) explored 12 VR maps for 40 secs each. Encoding was either done Passively (observed a video), using visual guidance similar to GPS, or Actively (making own decisions about where to turn). Maps were created using MapBox, and were based on real-world map layouts of cities (e.g., Tokyo, Manhattan).