1. Table 1: Pearson r Correlations for Spatial Skills and TLX
Those with weaker Mental rotation skills reported more efforts and higher
overall load than those with stronger skills. Participants’ ratings of anxiety
correlated with increased frustration on the Nasa TLX.
A Birds Eye View of a Foreign World: Individual Differences in Spatial Cognition
Dawn Blasko (dgb6@psu.edu), Heather Lum (hcl11@psu.edu), Grace Waldfogle,
Jacob Benedict, & Holly Blasko-Drabik
Pennsylvania State University, Behrend College, USA
Abstract
This study explores how individual differences in spatial cognition
influence our ability to navigate and create mental maps of our
surroundings. We hypothesized that navigating in an unfamiliar
environment can be impacted by many things including stressors
such as unfamiliar language, lack of knowledge, and time. We
measured individual differences in spatial cognition and asked U.S.
college students to play a computer game where participants
must cope with the stress of navigating an unfamiliar environment
under time constraints. Participants with stronger spatial skills
showed better performance and developed more detailed mental
maps of the environment. We are now recording eye-movements
while U.S participants navigate a game world representing a US or
Japanese city and examine whether the foreign environment will
impact performance.
Eye Tracking Analysis (Pilot)
Discussion
• Overall we believe that we were successful in creating an
immersive 3d game to investigate navigation.
Game experience scores (SGEM) were lower than ideal, but
most participants did perceive the task as being game-like.
Participants showed the highest scores in Learning Self-
Efficacy (M= 3.6).
• Males seemed to preform better (both in speed and accuracy)
in the navigation tasks compared to females, especially in the
English modification which may have felt more familiar if they
played GTA in the past.
• Consistent with predictions, spatial ability did correlate with
participants’ perceptions of the game difficulty. Those with
better spatial skills reported expending less effort during the
task.
• The secondary dog task showed no significant difference
between group or gender. Scores ranged from 25% to 83%
accuracy with a mean of 61%. The secondary task may have
interfered with the development of a mental map of the
environment.
• At this early point in data collection we did not find significant
differences in the perception of their environment between
the Japanese vs. English version of the game. However an eye
tracking analysis of areas modified to Japanese (e.g. signs)
showed that participants notice the modifications.
• Based on the results of this pilot study, we plan to modify the
secondary task to be less distracting, while strengthening the
foreign environment with more Japanese signs, people, and
props.
• Overall, modifying existing games appears to be an interesting
way to study wayfinding in both familiar and unfamiliar
environments.
Introduction
Spatial thinking includes the ability to imagine and manipulate
shapes or situations in the mind. Research suggests that there
are several separable dimensions of spatial cognition including
spatial perception, mental rotation and wayfinding, which may
include components of the other two.
The Water Level Task measures
the ability to determine spatial
relationships while ignoring
distraction. (Piaget & Inhelder, 1956)
The Mental Rotation Task measures
the ability to mentally manipulate 2
or 3-dimensional objects in order to
imagine them from a different
perspective. (Vandenburg & Kuse, 1978).
Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale (SBSoD): Self-report
measure of wayfinding, an environmental spatial ability (Hegarty,
Richardson, Montello, Lovelace & Subbiah, 2002).
e.g., “I can usually remember a new route after traveling it only once.”
Previous research on Wayfinding
• Overall men and women are similar in map reading and
wayfinding/navigation, but research suggests they tend to
use different strategies.
• Males favor strategies that involve distal and directional
information, while women favor land mark oriented
navigation (Mueller, Jackson, Skelton, 2008).
• Women sustain landmark gaze over time, while men’s gaze
decreases (Anderson, Dahmani, Konishi & Bohbot, 2012).
Modifications to Grand Theft Auto V
To create an interactive high fidelity 3D open world setting, we used the RockStar game engine to modify
GTA5 to create a believable foreign city setting.
• Graphic environment - High resolution textures, realistic effects
• Restricted 4x4 block area with items such as crowds, decorative planters
utility trucks, and outdoor events (such as musicians)
• These items served as “unfamiliar” cues for participants
(if ignored & walked around, researchers gave warnings to turn back)
• Overall 261 props, pedestrians, and vehicles were added to the basic
game map to create a more “foreign” feel with matching added US props in the English version
• Japanese map, an additional 26 vehicle types were changed so that randomly spawning vehicles
would add to the feeling of immersion.
• Auditory environment - Game has rich auditory environment (including the sounds of traffic, people
walking or talking, birds and other animals).
• Custom auditory soundtracks were added (4 to each condition and lasting 22 minutes total)
Soundtracks were overlaid on top of the game SFX sounds. Both sets of soundtracks included extra
traffic and voices appropriate to either the Japanese or US version of the game.
Measures
Video Game Experience, Past Travel, & Demographic Survey
• Demographics: age, ethnicity, gender, languages spoken
• Game Experience: Type of games played, average time
playing, previous GTA experience
• Travel: Previous countries visited, previous travel to Japan
Serious Games Experience Measure (Blasko-Drabik, Blasko, Fanning,
Klanica, & Benlamhidi, 2011 )
42-item questionnaire: 3 important dimensions of serious games
• Affective-focuses on the emotions, enjoyment, & immersion
“I became unaware of my surroundings while playing the game.”
• Learning- focuses on the player’s perceived self-efficacy,
perceived learning and motivation, “Playing this game, made me
think about other ways I could apply what I learned in it.”
• Game Mechanics- concerns the usability and playability of the
game itself.“I was given appropriate help or hints while playing.”
Spatial Experience Survey (Short V2)
“How easily you can you construct a mental map of a city”
Previous Research
In previous research we used the
Stop Disasters games to teach players
ways to mitigate the effects of
natural disasters. The goal was to
minimizing property damage and to
saving lives. We then examined the
interactions of game performance,
learning, and spatial skills.
Fifty-four participants improved on tsunami preparedness
knowledge from pre to post training, F (1,54) = 51.48, p < .001.
Higher spatial scores correlated with overall knowledge of the
tsunami disaster planning post-test, t(1,54)=10.76, p < .001.
Spatial performance also correlated with some aspects of games
performance. For example, those who scored better on the mental
rotation task were more likely to understand the goals of the
game, thereby were then able to visualize the game better and
use more of the resources provided to them.
(Blasko-Drabik, H., Blasko, D., Lum, H., Erdem, B., Ohashi, M (2013)
NASA Task Load
Index (TLX)
Subjective, multidimensional
assessment tool to rate
perceived workload on six
subscales:
• Mental demand
• Physical demand
• Temporal demand
• Effort
• Frustration
• Performance
(Hart & Staveland, 1988)
Calibration & TLX
Japanese Condition
(Japanese voice over)
English Condition
(English Voice Over)
Map Tracing
Secondary task
Post-TLX
Spatial Skills
Surveys
English Mod Japanese Mod
Procedure
Video Walkthrough & Navigation Task
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Male Female
NumberofParticipants
Figure 1: Task Completion By Gender
Completed Task Did Not Complete Task
NASA Task Load
Index
Mental
Rotation
Spatial
Perception
SBSODS Anxiety
Overall Difference -.303* -.138 -.069 -.062
Mental -.157 -.076 -.085 .056
Physical -.150 -.127 -.047 -.147
Temporal -.016 .139 .111 -.027
Performance -.204 -.181 -.093 -.034
Effort -.350** -.157 -.057 .015
Frustration -.221 -.042 .057 -.261*
P < .05 *. P < 001**
Research Questions
• Was the game modification effective in creating an
immersive environment to simulate wayfinding in a
familiar and unfamiliar environment?
• Do the cues in an unfamiliar environment such as
language and signs impact the ability to navigate
successfully?
• Does a foreign environment create more stress then a
familiar one?
• Do spatial skills impact navigation in the game?
• Do gender differences in navigation strategies interact
with environmental familiarity?
Navigation Task Results
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Male Female
TimeSpentonTask(Minutes)
Figure 2: Speed on the Navigation Task
English Japanese
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
Added Navigation Aides Game Landmarks
AverageGazeDuration(Milliseconds)
Figure 3: Eye Tracking of Average Gaze Duration
English Japanese
Figure 1 shows the significant difference between gender and the
ability to complete the navigation task, Χ2 (1, N = 75) = 10.98, p < .001.
More males completed the task than females. 34 participants
completed the navigation task without hints and 15 with hints.
Figure 2 shows the means and standard deviations of the time taken on the
navigation task. The results of Gender x Environment ANOVA showed there was
no significant 2-way interaction. When mental rotation score was included as a
covariance there was a main effect of gender, F (1,22) = 4.19, p = .05.
Figure 5: Sample Eye Tracking Heat Maps
Figure 5: A representative sample of two participant’s heat maps are shown above in order to
illustrate potential attentional differences and navigation strategies. The left two figures show
what a male participant was focusing on in the English mod while the right shows a female
participant in the Japanese mod.
Figure 3: A significant difference was shown in the gaze duration between the added navigation
aides and game landmarks for the English condition, t (16) = 3.20, p < .05. Mean gaze duration
for the added navigation aides for the English condition was 1.19 (SD = .68), demonstrating a
significant increase in average gaze duration from the game landmarks, .56 (SD = .30).
We examined 18 Areas of Interest (AOIs) that ranged from bus
stops to people at an outdoor party. AOIs were grouped by added
navigation aides or game landmarks These items were chosen
based off of language/culture represented on the item (e.g. bus
with Japanese text) or basic landmark placement (e.g. trees
located at the first major turn).
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Office of Undergraduate Research at Penn
State Behrend for funding this research and our travel to ICP.
We would also like to thank Miri Ohashi for her help. Please contact Dawn
Blasko at dgb6@psu.edu
Demographics
• Total Participants: 79 undergraduate
students (47 males, 32 female)
Eyetracking N = 29 (20 males, 9
females)
• Mean Age 20.6 years
• 70% U.S., 28% international
• 22% fluent in at least two languages.
• None spoke Japanese
• 12% traveled outside of the US.
• Males reported more video game
experience than females p < .05.
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