Distance Estimation in Minimal Virtual Environments

This paper reports on an experimental study into distance estimation in a simple virtual environment. The results have been then compared with an experimental study of spatial cognition in the real world. It is concluded that the minimal virtual environment resembles a restricted Euclidean environment (or Euclidean environments viewed in a restricted or blinkered manner). 1. Spatial cognition and virtual environments This paper begins by addressing the question of how we navigate the virtual environments presented to us in non-immersive desktop virtual reality games. As very little research has addressed this specific question to date, it seems reasonable to assume that psychological research into real-world spatial cognition may offer a starting point for investigating virtual navigation. Much research in spatial cognition has focused on the concept of cognitive mapping, which can be operationally defined as the process or processes by which a cognitive representation of an environment is acquired. The process of cognitive mapping necessarily gives rise to a cognitive map, definitions of which vary greatly in nature. The notion of the cognitive map can be traced in the psychological literature as far back as Gulliver in 1908, but it is Tolman