A comparative study of environmental cognition in a real environment and its VRML simulation (Virtual Reality Modelling Language)

The paper investigates the acquisition of environmental cognitive knowledge in a real world and its desktop VRML simulation. It focuses on the effect of design background and gender on spatial cognition in both displays. A post-rest-only control-group design is used examine to what extent a desktop VRML simulation provides users with cognitive data that is comparable to real world experience. Results indicate that there is a between-group agreement and disagreement depending on the typology of space. Participants using desktop VRML could provide cognitive distance estimations that are equivalent to their counterparts in real world. Design background did have a significant effect on spatial cognition in real world, however it did not show a remarkable effect in desktop VRML. Gender has affected height estimation in the real world, however it did not show any effect in desktop VRML