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Landmarks are accepted as one of the vital elements in both virtual and real environments during wayfinding tasks. This paper provides an overview of the existing literature on the selection of landmarks in wayfinding mostly in large-scale urban environments and outdoors by discussing two main aspects of landmarks: visibility and salience. Environments and layouts used in previous studies, different tasks given to people and the main findings are explained and compared. Summary tables are created from these findings. The review concludes that there is mostly a consensus on the selection of landmarks, when considering their location. Accordingly, landmarks on route and also at decision points (with a turn) are more effective during wayfinding tasks. However, visibility of landmarks as well as visual and cognitive saliency need to be further investigated using different environments, tasks or different levels of familiarity with environments.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10339-021-01012-x | DOI Listing |
Front Aging Neurosci
August 2025
Institute of Gerontology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States.
Introduction: Wayfinding is a cognitive ability that supports accurate spatial navigation and declines in this ability adversely affect independent living in older age. The cognitive map represents environmental details, such as landmark cues, relative to the goal location. Distal cues appear to be less effective than proximal ones in precisely locating the goal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS Biol
July 2025
Department of Experimental Psychology, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Much has been learned about the cognitive and neural mechanisms by which humans and other animals navigate to reach their goals. However, most studies have involved a single, well-learned environment. By contrast, real-world wayfinding often occurs in unfamiliar settings, requiring people to combine memories of landmark locations with on-the-fly information about transitions between adjacent states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBehav Sci (Basel)
July 2025
Key Laboratory of Human Factors and Ergonomics, State Administration for Market Regulation, China National Institute of Standardization, Beijing 100191, China.
With the increasing prevalence of autonomous vehicles (AVs), drivers' spatial cognition and takeover performance have become critical to traffic safety. This study investigates the effects of landmark salience-specifically visual and structural salience-on drivers' spatial cognition and takeover behavior in autonomous driving scenarios. Two simulator-based experiments were conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
March 2025
Department of Geography, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93117, USA.
Spatial familiarity has seen a long history of interest in wayfinding research. To date, however, no studies have been done which systematically assess the behavioral correlates of spatial familiarity, including eye and body movements. In this study, we take a step towards filling this gap by reporting on the results of an in-situ, within-subject study with [Formula: see text] pedestrian wayfinders that combines eye-tracking and body movement sensors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCogn Res Princ Implic
February 2025
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
People navigate in various types of spaces, including indoor and outdoor environments. These differ in availability of navigational cues, such as distal landmarks, clear boundaries, and regular grid structures. Does learning the layout of different types of environments rely on the same or diverse cognitive abilities? Do separate measures of learning reflect different abilities? In a study of individual differences, 88 people learned the layout of two virtual environments from first person experience: a grid-like maze, and a campus-like open environment.
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