Spatial representations of virtual mazes: The role of visual fidelity and individual differences

Twenty-four people learned three versions of a room-sized maze: a wire-fram e desktop virtual environment (VE), a normal surface-rendered desktop VE, a nd a real-world maze. Differences among the mental representations formed f rom each environment were measured with pointing and distance estimation ta sks in a real-world version of each maze. People were more accurate at poin ting after having learned the real and wire-frame VE maze than the surface- rendered VE maze; however, this effect was small compared with the effect o f individual differences. Differences in gender, spatial ability, and prior computer experience were significantly related to the ability to acquire s patial information from the desktop VE. There was a high correlation betwee n spatial knowledge when it was measured in the VE and spatial knowledge me asured in the real world. Actual or potential applications include the desi gn of effective VE training systems.