The impact of human agents on spatial navigation and knowledge acquisition in a virtual environment

Concepts of spatial navigation rest on the idea of landmarks, which are immobile features or objects in the environment. However, behaviorally relevant objects or fellow humans are often mobile. This raises the question of how the presence of human agents influences spatial exploration and knowledge acquisition. Here, we investigate exploration and performance in subsequent spatial tasks within a virtual environment containing numerous human avatars. In the exploration phase, agents had a locally limited effect on navigation. They prompted participants to revisit locations with agents during their initial exploration without significantly altering overall exploration patterns or the extent of the area covered. However, agents and buildings competed for visual attention. When spatial recall was tested, pointing accuracy toward buildings improved when participants directed their attention to the buildings and nearby agents. In contrast, pointing accuracy for agents showed weaker performance and did not benefit from visual attention directed toward the adjacent building. Contextual agents and incongruent agent-environment pairings further enhanced pointing accuracy, revealing that violations of expectations by agents can significantly shape navigational knowledge acquisition. Overall, agents influenced spatial exploration by directing attention locally, with the interaction between agent salience and environmental features playing a key role in shaping navigational knowledge acquisition.