Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Computer-based navigation aids support navigation by foregrounding route instructions. Using those aids can have detri-mental effects on the ability to orient oneself without assistance. Rather than providing allocentric spatial informationin the form of conventional maps, navigation aids may support another form of human spatial memory that is essen-tially egocentric. In the present study, visualizations for navigation assistance systems were experimentally varied usinga virtual environment. Effects on wayfinding success and orientation after navigation were investigated. Results showthat dynamic, user-aligned views during navigation (providing spatial directional information to unseen targets) reducedthe risk of making erroneous turning decision during navigation and improved orientation after navigation, in contrast toview-independent representations with a stable north-aligned coordinate system. It is concluded that user-aligned viewscan facilitate the acquisition of egocentric survey knowledge while avoiding representational conflicts during navigation.