Gilford Zimmerman orientation survey: A validation

The Gilford Zimmerman (GZ) orientation survey test is a key test in the domain of spatial knowledge acquisition; for determining a users´ virtual environment orientation skill. Our work shows that the GZ survey test reflects not only a user´s orientation skill (OS), but a mixture of user orientation and cognitive skills. The output of the GZ test is central to much spatial knowledge acquisition research. This paper investigates the impact of cognitive load on GZ test scores. We develop a new electronic test that reduces cognitive load and show significant increases in OS scores. Interestingly, since cognitive load, in the paper-based GZ test, negatively impacts everyone consistently, both old and new GZ tests can be used to categorize relative participant orientation skill.