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MAGELLAN: A Cognitive Map-Based Model of Human Wayfinding.
- Source :
-
Journal of Experimental Psychology. General . Jun2014, Vol. 143 Issue 3, p1314-1330. 17p. - Publication Year :
- 2014
-
Abstract
- In an unfamiliar environment, searching for and navigating to a target requires that spatial information be acquired, stored, processed, and retrieved. In a study encompassing all of these processes, participants acted as taxicab drivers who learned to pick up and deliver passengers in a series of small virtual towns. We used data from these experiments to refine and validate MAGELLAN, a cognitive map-based model of spatial learning and wayfinding. MAGELLAN accounts for the shapes of participants' spatial learning curves, which measure their experience-based improvement in navigational efficiency in unfamiliar environments. The model also predicts the ease (or difficulty) with which different environments are learned and, within a given environment, which landmarks will be easy (or difficult) to localize from memory. Using just 2 free parameters, MAGELLAN provides a useful account of how participants' cognitive maps evolve over time with experience, and how participants use the information stored in their cognitive maps to navigate and explore efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00963445
- Volume :
- 143
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 96315199
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035542