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Abstract:
Common myth has it that people who get lost in unfamiliar terrain end up walking in circles. We tested whether this is true and what role visual information plays. Participants walked for several hours under various conditions of visual information. Their task was to walk as straight as possible in the direction indicated at the beginning of the experiment. GPS was used to register their walking paths. Participants often walked in circles when blindfolded, although only few exhibited a consistent bias in one direction. In a forest, with ample visual information at short distance but few distant landmarks, participants walked in circles with overcast sky. However, with sunny weather they walked perfectly straight. In the Sahara desert, finally, participants only walked in circles during the night when the moon was not visible, but not when either moon or sun was visible. The results suggest that visual information is critical for walking straight. Furthermore, the mere availability of optic flow is not sufficient; participants needed distant landmarks to walk straight.
