Navigational strategy may be more a matter of environment and experience than gender

• People were trained in either a cue- or place-based virtual Morris water maze.
• When tested in a Dual strategy maze, all cue trained participants navigated by cue.
• Most but not all place-trained participants navigated by place; some switched to cue.
• No gender-based differences in strategy selection were seen.
• Therefore, selection of navigational strategy is strongly affected by experience.

In the study of wayfinding there is considerable controversy about what factors determine when and how strategies are selected. Allocentric strategies rely on the presence of distal, relational stimuli whereas egocentric strategies rely on the presence of proximal or simple guidance stimuli. Strategy use has often been explained by studies of internal factors like gender but little weight has been given to the study of how strategies are selected. The present study examined the effects of recent experience on strategy selection in three specially designed versions of a virtual Morris water maze (vMWM). Thirty-seven participants were trained either in an allocentrically biased “Place” maze or an egocentrically biased “Cue” maze, and then tested in a “Dual-strategy” maze, in which both allocentric and egocentric strategies were equally efficient. All participants trained with the Cue maze selected an egocentric strategy whereas two thirds of participants trained in the Place maze chose an allocentric strategy. A verbal probe revealed that allocentric strategists were more aware of features in the virtual environment than were egocentric strategists. No evidence of gender differences in strategy selection or navigation performance was found.