“Freely explore this environment”: Individual differences in exploration behavior and survey knowledge

When navigating individuals form mental representations of their environment. Significant individual differences exist, particularly in the ability to develop survey knowledge - a map-like understanding of spatial relationships. While many studies have focused on navigation via predetermined routes, less is known about individual differences in learning environments from free exploration. This study investigated whether exploration behaviors, such as the tendency to revisit places or diffuse in the environment, are linked to mental representations and whether visuospatial factors, like visuospatial working memory and self-reported wayfinding inclinations (e.g., self-efficacy and pleasure in exploring, and spatial anxiety), contribute to these relationships.
A sample of 234 participants (147 women) completed a visuospatial working memory task and wayfinding questionnaires, then freely explored a virtual city in a CAVE environment. Revisiting (tendency to re-explore visited areas) and diffusion (extent of environmental coverage) were calculated. Their survey knowledge was assessed using a map drawing task.

个体在导航时会形成对所处环境的心理表征（mental representation）。个体之间存在显著差异，尤其是在构建概览知识（survey knowledge）的能力方面——概览知识是一种类似地图的空间关系理解方式。尽管许多研究聚焦于通过预设路线进行的导航，但关于自由探索中个体在环境学习上的差异知之甚少。本研究探讨了探索行为（如重访地点的倾向或在环境中的扩散行为）是否与心理表征相关，以及视空间因素（如视空间工作记忆（visuospatial working memory）和自我报告的寻路倾向——例如探索自我效能感、探索乐趣及空间焦虑）是否对这些关系有影响。

234名参与者（其中147名为女性）完成了视空间工作记忆任务和寻路问卷，随后在CAVE环境中自由探索虚拟城市。研究计算了重访行为（重新探索已访问区域的倾向）和扩散行为（环境覆盖范围）。通过地图绘制任务评估了参与者的概览知识。