Rotational movements in real and virtual environments

The study compared spatial learning in real and virtual small-scale environments. Twenty-four participants were placed in the center of laboratory and equivalent virtual environments. The participants’ task was to learn the location of target objects by turning left or right using rotational movements only. Knowledge of the location of the targets was subsequently assessed in pointing and map tasks. The main finding was comparable pointing performance following real and virtual learning. Increasing the amount of practice decreased pointing errors, and augmenting the environments with cardinal reference directions resulted in a reduction in error scores. The results suggest that learning through rotational movements is relatively unaffected by lack of vestibular feedback.