Wunderlich’s study shows that landmark-based auditory instructions improve spatial learning and brain responses in real-world navigation. Mobile EEG confirmed these effects outside the lab. ANT Neuro’s eego™sports made this research possible.
Investigating the impact of auditory navigation instructions upon incidental spatial learning in pedestrians
Professor Klaus Gramann is the Head of the Department of
Biological Psychology and Neuroergonomics at the Berlin Institute of
Technology in Berlin, Germany, and founder of the Berlin Mobile Brain
/ Body Imaging Lab (BeMoBIL). He is also on the International Faculty
at School of Software, University of Technology Sydney, Australia, and
at the Center for Advanced Neurological Engineering, University of
California, San Diego.
Anna Wunderlich is a PhD student at BeMoBIL, whose work focuses
on identifying neural and behavioral processes underlying natural
cognition. She obtained her Masters degree in Human Factors at
TU Berlin in 2016 and Bachelors degree in Sensoric and Cognitive
Psychology at TU Chemnitz in 2013. Hereafter, she joined the laboratory
of Prof. Klaus Gramann in 2017 as a PhD candidate. Her thesis focuses
on spatial knowledge acquisition during assisted navigation comparing
landmark-based and standard navigation instructions.
Introduction
Smartphones have become a standard utensil in the vast majority of everyone’s daily life.
Importantly, it has become rather customary to employ smartphones when having to navigate
within novel environments. In fact, Navigation Assistance Systems (NAS) are used extensively
by pedestrians and vehicle operators alike. While this technological revolution provides a
remarkable tool for everyday spatial exploration, there has been a growing body of work focusing
on the impact of NAS upon perception and interaction with the environment. More specifically,
Wunderlich and colleagues aim at investigating the impact of NAS on the neurophysiological
mechanisms underpinning spatial cognition in general and incidental spatial learning in particular.
The interest of the BeMoBIL to further explore the impact of NAS on spatial cognition was driven by prior studies suggesting that excessive use of NAS technology leads to a decrease of orienting abilities (Münzer, Zimmer, Schwalm, Baus, & Aslan, 2006). In fact, several studies have shown that the use of visual-based NAS interferes with visuo-motor spatial processing during navigation (resulting in an automation bias) due to the increase in attentional demands (e.g . Lin, Kuehl, Schöning, & Hecht, 2017). Ultimately, this results in the over-reliance on the NAS by the user in order to cope with the increased cognitive demands and, consequently, to diminished spatial processing (Fenech, Drews, & Bakdash, 2010).
Interestingly, auditory-based NAS seem to be beneficial for spatial navigation, and to interfere less with visuo-motor processes (May & Ross, 2006; Wunderlich & Gramann, 2018). Further, Gramann and colleagues (2017) showed that auditory navigation instructions could improve incidental spatial learning when landmarks were augmented in a virtual driving task (Gramann, Hoepner, & Karrer-Gauss, 2017, Wunderlich & Gramann, 2018). Here, Wunderlich and Gramann investigated how auditory NAS instructions affect spatial navigation and subsequent spatial memory trace retrieval within real-world settings.
Premise
The findings from Gramann and colleagues
(2017, 2018) provided initial and compelling
results suggesting beneficial incidental
learning effects following enhanced auditory
navigation instructions. Nonetheless, these
data were acquired within a controlled
laboratory setup. Whether these findings can
be directly transposed to real-world settings
was still to be addressed.
Materials & Methods
22 participants were asked to navigate through a novel environment by following auditory navigation instructions. While participants followed a pre-defined path, simultaneous EEG from 64 channels was recorded (see Figures 1 and 2). Participants were subdivided into two groups. While one group received standard navigational instructions, subjects in the second group received long, more detailed auditory instructions. More specifically, subjects in the standard group were prompted to (e.g.) “Turn left at the next intersection”. Alternatively, subjects in the long instruction group received landmark-based instructions such as “Turn left at the UdK.
The UdK is the biggest University of Arts in
Europe.”
Upon completion of the pedestrian route,
all participants were brought back to the
BeMoBIL where they were asked to draw a
map and complete a cued-recall task. The
latter entailed that the subjects were asked to
indicate route directions according to images
of landmarks. These landmarks could 1) be
novel items, 2) have been encountered during
straight segments of the route, or 3) have been
encountered at intersections of the route.
Results
The results replicated prior findings,
suggesting that landmark-based navigation
instructions enhance incidental spatial
learning (Gramann et al., 2017; Wunderlich &
Gramann, 2018).
Interestingly, the results also suggested
that the more detailed content presented
to the “long instruction” group, significantly
increase subsequent landmark recognition
performance. These differences observed
at the behavioral level were also reflected at
the neurophysiological level. In fact, blinkrelated
responses during navigation showed
greater amplitudes over frontal electrodes as
compared to standard navigation instructions.
New avenues for data processing
Importantly, the work from Wunderlich and
colleagues provides exemplar insight into
the analytical challenges related to EEG data
acquired in real-world settings. Specifically,
the present study was conducted in freelymoving
participants navigating within the
real world. Compared to classical laboratorybased
paradigms, where analysis pipelines
capitalize upon the extraction of epochs
based on well-controlled events/triggers in
time, no such stimulus control was applied
within the paradigm at hand. Consequently,
the analysis of such data poses a technical
and methodological challenge. Rather, EEG
segments were extracted with respect to
Eyeblinks (bERPs) or saccades (sERPs).
The rationale behind this approach is that,
in the absence of controlled visual stimulus
presentations, eyeblinks and saccades can
be considered as natural indices for the onset
of novel information delivered to the visual
system.
For a full account of the methods employed
we would like to refer you to Wunderlich &
Gramann (2020).
Blink‐related potentials during the presentation of navigation instructions. Left panel displays the topography of the activity averaged across three time windows of 250ms. Top row represents the standard and bottom row the landmark-based navigation instruction condition. Right panel shows the blink-related potential at FCz. Baseline correction was done by subtracting the average activity of ‐400 to ‐200 ms. Grey areas represent time windows where samplewise significant differences were found between the two navigation instruction conditions. Positivity is plotted upwards.
Outlook
Studies such as the here presented work by Wunderlich and colleagues can further our understanding of how the brain integrates and processes information in real-world settings. This is of crucial importance when trying to bridge the gap between findings stemming from laboratory settings to the
neurophysiological underpinnings of realworld
exploration. The striking advancements
made in recent years within the field of
hardware engineering have provided
researchers with the necessary tools to
acquire high-quality electroencephalographic
data within real-world settings. As such, ANT
Neuro is proud to contribute to such enticing
research avenues through the provision of
high-density EEG systems for mobile data
acquisition.
Overcoming challenges of EEG recordings
in Real-World settings
The investigation of neurophysiological
processes in real-world settings has long-time
been a major limitation factor for cognitive
neuroscientists. This mainly stemmed
from the lack of the availability of portable,
light-weight, high-density EEG systems.
Additionally, noise contamination of the EEG
signal through ambient electromagnetic
interference as well as mechanically induced
noise transients (e.g. cable displacement)
have long-time hindered a straight-forward
translation of EEG setups from the laboratory
into the real-world. Ultimately, the availability
of analysis pinelines and computational
tools, capable of effectively extracting
neural activity from concurrently elicited
physiological signals (e.g. muscle activity)
has been a milestone within the past years.
The ANT Neuro eego™sports solution
employed here, provides a ultra-light
64-channel amplifier which conveniently
fits into a dedicated backpack. Data were
recorded throughout the length of the
task on a high-performance tablet placed
within the backpack. Furthermore, the
active shielding technology implemented
between the eego™ amplifier and the
waveguard™ original 64-channel electrode
caps effectively counteracted interference
of electromagnetic and mechanical noise
sources. The current study underlines the
effectiveness and outstanding EEG signal
quality which can be achieved with the ANT
Neuro eego™sports solution.
eego™sports ultra-mobile EEG & EMG recording solution
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
References
The Effects of Acoustic Turn-by-turn Navigation on Wayfinding
by Fenech, E. P., Drews, F. A., & Bakdash, J. Z. (2010).
Read More
Modified Navigation Instructions for Spatial Navigation Assistance Systems Lead to Incidental Spatial Learning
by Gramann, K., Hoepner, P., & Karrer-Gauss, K. (2017).
Read More
Understanding "Death by GPS": A Systematic Study of Catastrophic Incidents Associated with Personal Navigation Technologies
by Lin, A. Y., Kuehl, K., Schöning, J., & Hecht, B. (2017).
Read More
Presence and Quality of Navigational Landmarks: Effect on Driver Performance and Implications for Design
by May, A. J., & Ross, T. (2006).
Read More
Computer-assisted navigation and the acquisition of route and survey knowledge
by Münzer, S., Zimmer, H. D., Schwalm, M., Baus, J., & Aslan, I. (2006).
Read More
Electrocortical Evidence for Long-Term Incidental Spatial Learning Through Modified Navigation Instructions
by Wunderlich, A., & Gramann, K. (2018).
Read More
Eye movement-related brain potentials during assisted navigation in real-world environments
by Wunderlich, A., & Gramann, K. (2020).
Read More