Are Left-Right Hemisphere Errors in Point-to-Origin Tasks in VR Caused by Failure to Incorporate Heading Changes?

Abstract

Optic flow displays are frequently used both in spatial cognition/psy-chology research and VR simulations to avoid the influence of recognizable landmarks. However, optic flow displays not only lead to frequent misperceptions of simulated turns, but also to drastic qualitative errors: When asked to point back to the origin of locomotion after viewing simulated 2-segment excursions in VR, between 40% (Riecke 2008) and 100% (Klatzky et al., 1998) of participants responded as if they failed to update and incorporate the visually simulated turns into their responses. To further investigate such ”NonTurner” behaviour, the current study used a wider range of path geometries that allow for clearer disambiguation of underlying strategies and mental processes. 55% of participants showed clear qualitative pointing errors (left-right hemisphere errors), thus confirming the reliability of the effect and the difficulties in properly using optic flow even in high-quality VR displays. Results suggest that these qualitative errors are not caused by left-right mirrored responses, but are indeed based on a failure to properly incorporate visually presented turns into point-to-origin responses. While the majority of these qualitative errors could be attributed to NonTurner behaviour as previously proposed, we identified a novel, modified NonTurner strategy that could reconcile prior findings. Finally, results suggest that Turners (which properly incorporate visually presented turns) might use online updating of the homing direction, whereas NonTurners resort to more effortful and cognitively demanding offline strategies. Better understanding these strategies and underlying processes and how they depend on stimulus and display parameters can help to inform the design of more effective VR simulations.