Cognitive and gender factors influencing navigation in a virtual environment

Virtual environments (VEs) are becoming popular as media for training, mode lling and entertainment. Little is known, however, about the factors that a ffect efficient and rapid acquisition of knowledge using this technology. F ive experiments examined the influence of gender, passive/active navigation , cognitive style, hemispheric activation measured by electroencephalograph y and display information on the acquisition of two types of navigational k nowledge using a VE: route and survey knowledge. Males acquired route knowl edge from landmarks faster than females. In situations where survey knowled ge must be used, proficiency in visual-spatial cognition is associated with better performance. The right cerebral hemisphere appears to be more activ ated than the left during navigational learning in a VE. In identifying cog nitive factors that influence VE navigation, these results have a number of implications in the use of VEs for training purposes and may assist in lin king processes involved in navigation to a more general framework of visual -spatial processing and mental imagery. (C) 2000 Academic Press.