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Individual Differences In The Formation Of Cognitive Maps Based On Different Environments, Iuliia Kositcina

Brescia Psychology Undergraduate Honours Theses

Individual differences in the ability to build a mental cognitive map of an unfamiliar environment have been studied using both real-world environments (e.g., Ishikawa & Montello, 2006) and virtual environments (VEs) such as Silcton (Weisberg et al., 2014). The current study investigated whether the accuracy of a person’s cognitive map of their real-world, familiar environment was associated with the cognitive map they formed of an unfamiliar virtual environment in the lab. Forty-nine female undergraduate students provided frequently visited locations in their city of residence and explored the Silcton VE. They then completed direction estimation tasks that assessed the accuracy of …