ABSTRACT

Research on spatial navigation is essential to understanding how mobile species adapt to their environments. Such research increasingly uses virtual environments (VEs) because, although VE has drawbacks, it allows for standardization of procedures, precision in measuring behaviors, ease in introducing variation, and cross-investigator comparability. Developmental researchers have used a wide range of VE testing methods, including desktop computers, gaming consoles, virtual reality, and phone applications. We survey the paradigms to guide researchers’ choices, organizing them by their characteristics using a framework proposed by Girard (2022) in which navigation is reactive or deliberative, and may be tied to sensory input or not. This organization highlights what representations each paradigm indicates. VE tools have enriched our picture of the development of navigation, but much research remains to be done, e.g., determining retest reliability, comparing performance on different paradigms, validating performance against real-world behavior and open sharing. Reliable and valid assessments available on open-science repositories are essential for work on the development of navigation, its neural bases, and its implications for other cognitive domains.

摘要

空间导航研究对于了解移动物种如何适应其环境至关重要。此类研究越来越多地使用虚拟环境 (VE)，因为尽管 VE 有缺点，但它可以实现程序标准化、测量行为的精确性、易于引入变异以及跨研究人员的可比性。发育研究人员使用了多种 VE 测试方法，包括台式电脑、游戏机、虚拟现实和手机应用程序。我们调查了指导研究人员选择的范式，使用 Girard (2022) 提出的框架按其特征对它们进行组织，其中导航是反应性的或深思熟虑的，并且可能与感官输入相关联或不相关。该组织强调了每个范式所代表的内容。VE工具丰富了我们对导航发展的认识，但仍有许多研究要做，例如，确定重新测试的可靠性、比较不同范式的性能、根据现实世界的行为验证性能和开放共享。开放科学存储库上可用的可靠且有效的评估对于导航、其神经基础及其对其他认知领域的影响的发展至关重要。