Does the visibility of destination matter more than distance in human navigation? A pilot virtual reality study

Navigational decisions depend on both cognitive maps and immediate sensory experiences of the environment. However, when both cognitive maps and immediate sensory experiences are uncertain, it is unclear how decisions are made. Here, we question whether visibility of the destination matters more than the distance to that destination as constructed by our cognitive map [Tolman, E. C. 1948. “Cognitive Maps in Rats and men.” Psychological Review 55 (4): 189–208. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0061626]. We used Virtual Reality to create an embodied navigation task in a uniform environment, where we varied visibility and distance. Participants located two spheres in the environment and were then instructed to find one of them in a subsequent trial. Participants’ choices and movement were analysed. We find that participants base their navigational decisions on distance rather than visibility, favouring shorter distances over visibility. We find that cognitive maps surpass visual appearance, and embodied interactions are crucial for navigation.