Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment.
Wayfinding can be defined as the ability to learn and remember a route through an environment. Previous researchers have shown that young children have difficulties remembering routes. However, very few researchers have considered how to improve young children’s wayfinding abilities. Therefore, we i...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00174/full |
| _version_ | 1811333164519391232 |
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| author | Jamie eLingwood Mark eBlades Emily Kate Farran Yannick eCourbois Danielle eMatthews |
| author_facet | Jamie eLingwood Mark eBlades Emily Kate Farran Yannick eCourbois Danielle eMatthews |
| author_sort | Jamie eLingwood |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Wayfinding can be defined as the ability to learn and remember a route through an environment. Previous researchers have shown that young children have difficulties remembering routes. However, very few researchers have considered how to improve young children’s wayfinding abilities. Therefore, we investigated ways to help children increase their wayfinding skills. In two studies, a total of 72 5-year olds were shown a route in a six turn virtual environment and were then asked to retrace this route by themselves. A unique landmark was positioned at each junction and each junction was made up of two paths: a correct choice and an incorrect choice. Two different strategies improved route learning performance. In Experiment 1, verbally labelling landmarks at junctions during the first walk reduced children’s errors at turns, and the number of trials they needed to reach the learning criterion. In Experiment 2, encouraging children to attend to landmarks at junctions on the first walk reduced the children’s errors when making a turn. This is the first study to show that very young children can be taught effective route learning skills. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:47:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ddc831208a894f4abf50dd8cd964819b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:47:50Z |
| publishDate | 2015-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-ddc831208a894f4abf50dd8cd964819b2022-12-22T02:39:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-03-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.00174125566Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment.Jamie eLingwood0Mark eBlades1Emily Kate Farran2Yannick eCourbois3Danielle eMatthews4University of SheffieldUniversity of SheffieldInstitute of EducationUniversité Lille Nord de FranceUniversity of SheffieldWayfinding can be defined as the ability to learn and remember a route through an environment. Previous researchers have shown that young children have difficulties remembering routes. However, very few researchers have considered how to improve young children’s wayfinding abilities. Therefore, we investigated ways to help children increase their wayfinding skills. In two studies, a total of 72 5-year olds were shown a route in a six turn virtual environment and were then asked to retrace this route by themselves. A unique landmark was positioned at each junction and each junction was made up of two paths: a correct choice and an incorrect choice. Two different strategies improved route learning performance. In Experiment 1, verbally labelling landmarks at junctions during the first walk reduced children’s errors at turns, and the number of trials they needed to reach the learning criterion. In Experiment 2, encouraging children to attend to landmarks at junctions on the first walk reduced the children’s errors when making a turn. This is the first study to show that very young children can be taught effective route learning skills.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00174/fullroute learningwayfindingnavigational strategiesLandmarksvirtual environments |
| spellingShingle | Jamie eLingwood Mark eBlades Emily Kate Farran Yannick eCourbois Danielle eMatthews Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. Frontiers in Psychology route learning wayfinding navigational strategies Landmarks virtual environments |
| title | Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. |
| title_full | Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. |
| title_fullStr | Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. |
| title_short | Encouraging 5-year olds to attend to landmarks: A way to improve children’s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment. |
| title_sort | encouraging 5 year olds to attend to landmarks a way to improve children s wayfinding strategies in a virtual environment |
| topic | route learning wayfinding navigational strategies Landmarks virtual environments |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00174/full |
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