Improved spatial knowledge acquisition through sensory augmentation

Sensory augmentation offers a novel opportunity to broaden our knowledge of human perception through the use of external sensors that record information that humans cannot perceive naturally. This information is then translated in a meaningful way to be presented through an inherent sensory modality. To assess whether such augmented senses affect the acquisition of spatial knowledge during navigation, we trained a group of 26 participants for six weeks with an augmented sense for cardinal directions, called the feelSpace belt. In order to assess perceptual and behavioral changes, we compared the use of spatial strategies and the spatial navigation performance of the belt group to the performance of a control group that did not receive the augmented sense or the training. To this end, all participants explored the virtual reality environment Westbrook for 150 minutes in total. Then, the participants′ spatial knowledge of the virtual reality city was assessed subjectively with the FRS questionnaire and behaviorally in four immersive virtual reality tasks within Westbrook. The belt group reported a significant increase in the use of spatial strategies after training, while the groups′ ratings were comparable at baseline. The finding is consistent with previous studies showing cognitive and subjective changes to space perception as a consequence of wearing the feelSpace belt for an extended time period. Behaviorally, we found that the belt group acquired significantly more accurate knowledge of cardinal directions and of survey knowledge, measured in pointing accuracy, distance and rotation estimates. Finally, we found that the augmented sense also positively affects route knowledge but to a lesser degree. These results suggest that six weeks of training with the feelSpace belt lead to an improved acquisition of survey and route knowledge as reflected by an increased accuracy in survey and route knowledge tasks in a virtual city.