Abstract

Research in spatial cognition has provided strong evidence for the existence of two psychological systems that are used to control human navigation. First, an online system mediates interactions with one’s immediate environment and enables a navigator to maneuver, avoid obstacles, and update his or her location with respect to important locations in the current environment. This online system primarily uses relatively precise, though transient, information from a variety of sensory modalities. Second, an offline system enables one to imagine remote locations and to plan routes to unseen goals. This offline system uses relatively coarse information that is stored in long term memory. By understanding the nature and limitations of these two psychological systems, our research works to create computer interfaces, such as immersive virtual environments, that exploit humans’ relative sensitivities to different types of spatial information. Judicious application of these findings may enable users to navigate extremely large virtual worlds in a completely naturalistic way.