Memory for targets in a multi-level simulated-environment: a comparison between able-bodied and physically disabled children.

Two groups of children, one able-bodied and the other with physical disabilities, explored a symmetrical three-tiered virtual building that contained six distinctive target objects, two on each story. In a subsequent test, the target objects were removed and participants were asked to make judgments of the directions to the former target locations from each floor in turn. At each test site, judgments were required for targets that were formerly on the same floor and for those on higher and lower floors.

Memory for targets in a multilevel simulated environment: evidence for vertical asymmetry in spatial memory.

In two experiments, adult participants explored a symmetrical three-tiered computer-simulated building that contained six distinctive objects, two on each floor. Following exploration, the objects were removed, and the participants were asked to make direction judgments from each floor, indicating the former positions of the objects on that floor and on higher and lower floors. Relative tilt error scores indicated a bias, in that targets that were higher than the test location were judged as consistently lower than their actual positions and targets that were lower than the test location were judged as consistently higher than their actual positions.

Spatial knowledge of a real school environment acquired from virtual or physical models by able-bodied children and children with physical disabilities.

In Experiment 1, 2 groups of able-bodied children were exposed to both a complex single-tier virtual environment (VE) and a physical model of a different environment. For 1 group, the VE accurately modeled a real school, and for the other group the physical model did so. In transfer testing in the real school, orientation accuracy was greater in the group exposed to the VE of the real school.

Effects of early mobility on shortcut performance in a simulated maze.

This experiment compared the shortcut choices of able-bodied teenagers with those of physically disabled teenagers who had varying histories of mobility impairment. In a computer-simulated kite-shaped maze, participants were allowed to explore three arms that connected four rooms. Subsequently they were offered a choice between paths connecting two rooms, one of which was a novel shortcut.