van der Ham, I. , van der Kuil, M. & Delogu, F.
Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Finding your way is undoubtedly a necessity in everyday life. Although numerous studies have addressed navigation ability based on performance in purely visual tasks, hardly any have focused on the contribution of auditory sensory processing. In this study we have specifically examined how both visual and auditory cues are used to navigate through virtual environments. The main goal was to assess to what extent auditory information, in isolation and in combination with visual information, contributes to navigation ability. Virtual, interactive, three-dimensional mazes were used, consisting of rooms that were only discernable by visual cues, auditory cues, or a combination of visual and auditory cues. After memorizing the environment with one set of cues, participants were placed at a random room in the maze with the same set of cues and were instructed to find their way to the exit. Results indicate that visual cues lead to better navigation performance, compared to auditory cues. Notably, performance did not improve when combining visual and auditory cues, compared to visual cues in isolation. These findings indicate that auditory information can be used to navigate through a virtual environment, but they do not contribute to performance when visual information is also available.