About the Lab

Our goal is to understand human spatial memory and navigation. Traveling successfully from one place to another can require difficult decisions. People often need to consider the costs and the benefits of possible routes. For example, the best walking path between downtown buildings may be a short outdoor path when the weather is pleasant or a longer path through indoor passageways during overly hot or cold months. Navigators also use prior experience to make decisions about where to search for something that they need. Experienced drivers know, for example, that a strip mall is a better place to find a gas station than is a residential neighborhood. Navigators may need to decide whether they know an environment well enough to rely on their memories and sense of direction or should use the mapping app on their cell phones. To make good choices and to avoid getting lost, people rely on multiple sources of spatial information. One important source is what they see, such as roads, trails, or familiar places. Another important source is from the body: As you walk and turn, even with your eyes closed, you have a sense of how far you’ve have traveled and which directions you are facing. These sources of information tell people where they are, where they are headed, and how hard it will be to get there. Our research investigates how people make these sorts of navigational decisions, deal with conflicting sources of information, and use navigation aids. Most of our projects use immersive VR technology. The results of our research may inform the development movement interfaces for video games and GPS-enabled maps.