McElhinney, Sam; Zisch, Fiona; Hornsberger, Michael; Coutrot, Antoine; Spiers, Hugo; Hanna, Sean; (2022) Exosomatic Route Choice in Navigation: Evidence from video game player data. In: van Nes, Akkelies and de Koning, Remco E, (eds.) Proceedings 13th international space syntax symposium, 20-24 June 2022. : Bergen, Norway.

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Abstract

We investigate the extent to which navigation may be performed using exosomatic cues directly viewed in the environment, as opposed to relying on memory of a map or mental representation. Using trajectory data from a virtual navigation game app, Sea Hero Quest, we analyse the moment to moment route choices of 200 participants, and compare these against the expected routes based on several spatial variables measured from current isovists. Observations suggest that there is substantial evidence that for most participants navigation in a novel environment is indeed largely based on direct exosomatic information, and is based specifically on the space actually viewed, as opposed to that inferred by the shape of occluding edges. We also find evidence that strategies differ between individuals, in that the better navigators will deviate more from the exosomatic method, and rely more on their own memory and internal knowledge of the environment.

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