Strategies Identified During Wayfinding in a Virtual Reality Environment in Middle Aged and Older Adults

TL;DRAbstract

Place learning, the ability to learn and remember environments is a critical cognitive function for wayfinding in new or changed environments that becomes impaired in many people with age. Older adults are often slower, less accurate, and more likely to get lost than younger adults. Little is known about the types of strategies that older adults use in wayfinding, or how these strategies relate to wayfinding performance. In this study, 3 groups of older adults (aged 55-64, 65-74, and >75) were asked to find their way in 4 computerized virtual reality environments for 3 consecutive days. On days 1 and 3 subjects were asked several qualitative questions related to wayfinding strategies. Qualitative analysis revealed eight separate strategies, including: 1) Lining self up with cues/pictures/corners; 2) Psychomotor patterns 3) Random movement 4) Using distance/depth 5) Using memory 6) Moving towards one specific cue 7) Searching a specific quadrant and 8) Triangulating between more than 2

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