The Impact of Navigation Strategies on Spatial Memory Formation in Virtual Architectural Spaces

<p>This study investigates how navigation strategies in virtual environments affect spatial memory formation and environmental understanding. As navigation plays a fundamental role in how people experience and interpret space, especially in enclosed architectural spaces, exploring the cognitive processes behind movement and orientation remains crucial. However, the relationship between navigation strategy and spatial memory is still not fully understood, particularly in virtual contexts. This research examines how different navigation strategies influence spatial comprehension and how these behaviors contribute to our understanding of human decision-making and movement through built environments. Fifteen architecture students participated in a virtual reality experiment, navigating a multi-room space to locate specific objects using Meta Quest 2 headsets. Participants explored a 54.67m² space with six distinctive rooms, then drew floor plans from memory and answered questions about spatial features. Analysis of movement patterns, verbal descriptions, drawing accuracy, and spatial perception revealed distinct navigation preferences: participants using primarily allocentric (environment-referenced) strategies demonstrated 21.5% better drawing accuracy and more comprehensive spatial understanding, while those employing egocentric (self-referenced) strategies showed superior sequential memory but poorer global spatial comprehension. The study identified an optimal exploration time (5–8 minutes) balancing task completion with environmental awareness. Results indicate that virtual spaces should incorporate features supporting both navigation strategies, with broader exploration promoting a shift from egocentric to allocentric processing. These findings have significant implications for architectural education, virtual environment design, and spatial cognition research, offering valuable insight into human behavior and decision-making in indoor spatial settings.</p>