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Walking in circles: the role of visual information in navigation

MPS-Authors
/persons/resource/persons84228

Souman,  JL
Department Human Perception, Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Research Group Multisensory Perception and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons83920

Frissen,  I
Research Group Multisensory Perception and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Department Human Perception, Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons84232

Sreenivasa,  MN
Department Human Perception, Cognition and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Research Group Multisensory Perception and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;

/persons/resource/persons83906

Ernst,  MO
Research Group Multisensory Perception and Action, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;
Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Society;

External Resource

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/03010066080370S101
(Publisher version)

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Citation

Souman, J., Frissen, I., Sreenivasa, M., & Ernst, M. (2008). Walking in circles: the role of visual information in navigation. Poster presented at 31st European Conference on Visual Perception, Utrecht, The Netherlands.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-0013-C7FB-8
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.