A Room With a (Different) View: A Role for Field of View in the Reorientation Process

We manipulated the amount of an environment that was visually available to participants by manipulating field of view (FOV) in a virtual environment orientation task. Two groups of participants were trained to find a location in a trapezoidshaped enclosure uniquely specified by wall lengths, corner angle, and the egocentric side of the principal axis. One group (FOV 50°) had visually less of the environment available to them from any one perspective compared to another group (FOV 100°). Following training, we presented both groups with a control test along with three novel-shaped environments. Testing assessed the use of global geometry in isolation, in alignment with local geometry, or in conflict with local geometry. Constraining FOV diminished the ability to extract geometric properties and relationships of space and resulted in an inability to use either global or local geometric cues for reorientation. Implications for theoretical accounts of geometry learning are discussed.