Jan Wiener

Space Perception, Spatial Decision Making, and Wayfinding

 

Abstract

A series of experiments investigating gaze behavior and decision making in the context of wayfinding are presented. Participants were presented with screenshots of choice points taken in large virtual environments. Each screenshot depicted two path options. In Experiment 1, participants had to decide between them in order to find an object hidden in the environment. In Experiment 2, participants were informed about which path option to take as if following a guided route. Subsequently they were presented with the same images in random order and had to indicate which path option they chose during initial exposure.
In Experiment 1, we demonstrate (1.) that participants reliably chose the path option that featured the longer line of sight, and (2.) a robust gaze bias towards the eventually chosen path option option. In Experiment 2, systematic differences in gaze behavior towards the alternative path options between encoding and decoding were observed.
Finally, we present tentative models of gaze behavior that are based on geometrical features of the depicted environments and that allow predicting fixation behavior during space perception. Results from this study shed light onto the control of visual attention during space perception and wayfinding decision making.