Mind & behavior · 2017
Can adding information about nearby places to GPS directions help people remember a route in simulated driving?
Yes. In a virtual driving experiment, participants given GPS directions with added information about places along the route remembered the route and its surroundings better than those given standard directions. Both personally relevant and irrelevant added information helped. No difference in driving performance was detected, but the abstract does not establish whether the benefits carry over to real roads.
Details
Participants drove through simulated urban and suburban environments with navigation assistance. At points where they had to choose where to go, a control group received standard directions. Other groups received directions with either extra information about recognizable places or information linked to their personal interests, such as food and hobbies.
Compared with standard directions, both modified versions produced significant improvements in later navigation of the same route without assistance, recognition of places along the route, and drawing a sketch map. The abstract does not report whether personally relevant information worked better than irrelevant information. It also reports no detected difference in driving performance; that is not proof that the approaches are equally safe.
The findings support adding place-related information as a way to help people learn their surroundings while following directions in this simulation. The abstract does not report the size of the improvements or establish lasting benefits, better general navigation skills, or effectiveness in real-world driving.
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