Navigation is a task that involves processing two-dimensional light patterns on the retinas to obtain knowledge about how to move through a three-dimensional environment. Therefore, modifying the basic characteristics of the two-dimensional information provided to navigators should have important and informative effects on how they form their representations of the environment. Despite this, few basic research studies have examined the effects of systematically modifying the available levels of spatial visual detail on mobility performance. In this study we tested the effects of a range of visual blur levels---approximately equivalent to various degrees of low-pass spatial frequency filtering---on participants" route learning performance using desktop virtual renderings of the Hebb-Williams mazes. Our findings show that the function of blur and time to finish the mazes follows a sigmoidal pattern, with the inflection point around +2 diopters of blur. This suggests that visually guided route learning is fairly robust to blur, with the threshold level being just above the limit for legal blindness. These findings have implications for models of route learning, as well as for practical situations in which humans must navigate under conditions of blur.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/28195 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Therrien, Megan E |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 66 p. |
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