Finding one’s way is a fundamental daily activity and has been widely studied in the field of geospatial cognition. Immersive virtual reality (iVR) techniques provide new approaches for investigating wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge acquisition. It is currently unclear, however, how wayfinding behavior and spatial knowledge acquisition in iVR differ from those in real-world environments (REs). We conducted an RE wayfinding experiment with twenty-five participants who performed a series of tasks. We then conducted an iVR experiment using the same experimental design with forty participants who completed the same tasks. Participants’ eye movements were recorded in both experiments. In addition, verbal reports and postexperiment questionnaires were collected as supplementary data. The results revealed that individuals’ wayfinding performance is largely the same between the two environments, whereas their visual attention exhibited significant differences. Participants processed visual information more efficiently in RE but searched visual information more efficiently in iVR. For spatial knowledge acquisition, participants’ distance estimation was more accurate in iVR compared with RE. Participants’ direction estimation and sketch map results were not significantly different, however. This empirical evidence regarding the ecological validity of iVR might encourage further studies of the benefits of VR techniques in geospatial cognition research.

寻路是一项基本的日常活动，在地理空间认知领域得到了广泛的研究。沉浸式虚拟现实 (iVR) 技术为调查寻路行为和空间知识获取提供了新方法。然而，目前尚不清楚 iVR 中的寻路行为和空间知识获取与现实世界环境 (RE) 中的行为有何不同。我们对执行一系列任务的 25 名参与者进行了 RE 寻路实验。然后，我们使用相同的实验设计与完成相同任务的 40 名参与者进行了 iVR 实验。在两个实验中都记录了参与者的眼球运动。此外，还收集了口头报告和实验后问卷作为补充数据。结果表明，个体在两种环境中的寻路表现基本相同，而他们的视觉注意力表现出显着差异。参与者在 RE 中更有效地处理视觉信息，但在 iVR 中更有效地搜索视觉信息。对于空间知识获取，与 RE 相比，iVR 中参与者的距离估计更准确。然而，参与者的方向估计和草图结果没有显着差异。这个关于 iVR 生态有效性的经验证据可能会鼓励进一步研究 VR 技术在地理空间认知研究中的好处。参与者在 RE 中更有效地处理视觉信息，但在 iVR 中更有效地搜索视觉信息。对于空间知识获取，与 RE 相比，iVR 中参与者的距离估计更准确。然而，参与者的方向估计和草图结果没有显着差异。这个关于 iVR 生态有效性的经验证据可能会鼓励进一步研究 VR 技术在地理空间认知研究中的好处。参与者在 RE 中更有效地处理视觉信息，但在 iVR 中更有效地搜索视觉信息。对于空间知识获取，与 RE 相比，iVR 中参与者的距离估计更准确。然而，参与者的方向估计和草图结果没有显着差异。这个关于 iVR 生态有效性的经验证据可能会鼓励进一步研究 VR 技术在地理空间认知研究中的好处。