The NOvel Virtual Exploration and Learning Task (NOVEL-T): An easy to administer task to capture human spatial exploration behavior

Exploration behavior is a multifaceted activity that is observed across species. Individuals, however, differ in their tendency to seek out and explore novelty. Understanding these differences is also relevant from a clinical perspective as exploration behavior is affected by several neurological and psychiatric disorders (including depression and anxiety disorders). Typically, individual differences in exploration are measured via self-report scales, that are potentially subject to bias. More objective behavioral measures have been developed, but these tests are difficult to administer (e.g., they require a designated room and ambulatory monitoring). Here, we introduce a novel behavioral paradigm – the NOvel Virtual Exploration & Learning Task (NOVEL-T) – that can be easily administered (even online), which captures three distinct aspects of exploration behavior (1. exploratory activity, 2. shape of exploration, 3. exploratory efficiency). In the NOVEL-T, participants freely explore a naturalistic, 3D virtual environment while exploration behavior is automatically tracked. Here, we describe the NOVEL-T methodology as well as a novel analytical approach. We tested the task's construct validity by investigating the relationship between the NOVEL-T exploration measures and the novelty seeking (NS) trait. The results suggest that participants who scored higher on NS, also exhibited more exploratory activity in the NOVEL-T, demonstrating its validity for assessing the NS behavioral phenotype. Interestingly, our other exploration measures were not related to NS, suggesting they offer distinct measures of exploration behavior not captured by the NS trait. Taken together, the NOVEL-T offers an objective and easy to administer method to measure exploration behavior, that could be used both in research and clinical applications.