Athlete or musician? Who navigates a new building better?
Presenter Type
UNO Graduate Student (Doctoral)
Major/Field of Study
Biomechanics
Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2433-0525
Advisor Information
Dr. Aaron D Likens/Biomechanics, Assistant Professor
Location
MBSC304 - G (Doctoral)
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
24-3-2023 1:00 PM
End Date
24-5-2023 2:15 PM
Abstract
Spatial navigation is a crucial cognitive skill in humans that helps to track the objects’ position and orientation in the surrounding environment. With this ability, individuals can navigate familiar or even new environments they would be in. Spatial navigation is considered a dynamic ability, which means that it would be affected by different factors. Learning motor skills is one of the factors that affect spatial abilities. There are different studies, that show the role of motor skills in the different aspects of spatial abilities. However, studies to investigate spatial navigation in movement experts are rare. There is no specific method for evaluating this ability and based on the main concept different virtual environments were designed. In this study, we hypothesized that movement experts would perform better in spatial navigation compared to non-movement experts. We also wanted to illustrate the superiority of the type of motor skill in spatial navigation performance. Regarding the limitation we face in our research laboratory, we developed a first-person player game in Unity 3D (2020.3.43). The game is desktop based, so individuals use the computer mouse and keyboard for navigating the virtual environment. The participants were asked to find three objects in a simple maze environment and return to the start position in 5 minutes. The game consists of one start ring, 3 takable “plus” objects, 11 uncorrelated random unique objects placed through the maze in different positions, also a Navigation bar with specified directional positions of “plus” objects as cues. A simple trial with no time limitation was designed for familiarization with the instructions of the game and movement components (laptop's keyboard and gaming mouse). The traveled distance was calculated as the sum of the linear distance between each sampled position. The optimal distance was the minimum distance needed to travel to find the same objects as the player found. It is shown that gross movement experts perform better than fine-movement experts (p=0.014) and non-movement experts (p=0.011). The findings may show that learning gross movement skills improve spatial navigation skills in individuals, however, more research with a bigger sample size and considering the types of each motor skill would be done to deduct such documentation.
Scheduling
1-2:15 p.m., 2:30 -3:45 p.m.
Athlete or musician? Who navigates a new building better?
MBSC304 - G (Doctoral)
Spatial navigation is a crucial cognitive skill in humans that helps to track the objects’ position and orientation in the surrounding environment. With this ability, individuals can navigate familiar or even new environments they would be in. Spatial navigation is considered a dynamic ability, which means that it would be affected by different factors. Learning motor skills is one of the factors that affect spatial abilities. There are different studies, that show the role of motor skills in the different aspects of spatial abilities. However, studies to investigate spatial navigation in movement experts are rare. There is no specific method for evaluating this ability and based on the main concept different virtual environments were designed. In this study, we hypothesized that movement experts would perform better in spatial navigation compared to non-movement experts. We also wanted to illustrate the superiority of the type of motor skill in spatial navigation performance. Regarding the limitation we face in our research laboratory, we developed a first-person player game in Unity 3D (2020.3.43). The game is desktop based, so individuals use the computer mouse and keyboard for navigating the virtual environment. The participants were asked to find three objects in a simple maze environment and return to the start position in 5 minutes. The game consists of one start ring, 3 takable “plus” objects, 11 uncorrelated random unique objects placed through the maze in different positions, also a Navigation bar with specified directional positions of “plus” objects as cues. A simple trial with no time limitation was designed for familiarization with the instructions of the game and movement components (laptop's keyboard and gaming mouse). The traveled distance was calculated as the sum of the linear distance between each sampled position. The optimal distance was the minimum distance needed to travel to find the same objects as the player found. It is shown that gross movement experts perform better than fine-movement experts (p=0.014) and non-movement experts (p=0.011). The findings may show that learning gross movement skills improve spatial navigation skills in individuals, however, more research with a bigger sample size and considering the types of each motor skill would be done to deduct such documentation.
Additional Information (Optional)
I need a laptop/ or monitor/ or projector to show the screen of the game. Also, a gaming mouse which I have and can bring it. Windows 10 is preferred.