Location probability learning in 3-dimensional virtual search environments

Sisk, Caitlin A.; Interrante, Victoria; Jiang, Yuhong V. · 2021 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00284-3

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Summary

This study investigates location probability learning (LPL) in three-dimensional (3D) virtual environments to determine if the habit-like attentional biases observed in two-dimensional (2D) tasks extend to real-world-like search contexts. Previous research on LPL in 3D settings often involved complex visual cues or foraging tasks that may rely on explicit awareness rather than implicit statistical learning. The authors aimed to establish a baseline for LPL in controlled, visually sparse 3D spaces and specifically examined whether the spatial relationship between the participant and the target-rich region—specifically whether it lies within the initial field of view or behind the participant—affects learning efficiency. The experiment utilized virtual reality (HTC Vive) to create a large, nondescript 30ft by 30ft square room with sparse visual cues. Sixteen participants searched for a target letter “T” among distractor “Ls” on the floor. The search space was divided into four quadrants. During the training phase, the target appeared in one specific quadrant on 50% of trials (the target-rich quadrant), while appearing in the other three quadrants on the remaining trials. The location of the target-rich quadrant was counterbalanced across participants: for half, it was located in front of their starting position (within the initial field of view), and for the other half, it was located behind them. Participants completed exposure, training, and testing blocks, with reaction times (RT) recorded for target identification. The results demonstrated that LPL was significantly constrained by the target’s location relative to the participant’s initial orientation. Participants with a target-rich quadrant in front of them exhibited faster reaction times in that quadrant compared to direction-matched sparse quadrants, indicating successful implicit learning. In contrast, participants with a target-rich quadrant behind them showed no significant difference in reaction times between rich and sparse quadrants, indicating a failure to acquire LPL. This disparity persisted despite the fact that participants could physically turn to search the space behind them. Furthermore, post-experiment probes revealed that participants generally lacked explicit awareness of the probability distribution, supporting the conclusion that the learning observed in the front condition was implicit. These findings suggest that consistent egocentric spatial coding is essential for location probability learning in 3D environments. The study implies that LPL relies on repeated, consistent attentional shifts within a stable viewer-centered reference frame. When targets are located behind the participant, the need for physical reorientation disrupts this consistency, preventing the formation of the habit-like attentional bias seen in 2D tasks and front-facing 3D searches. This highlights a critical distinction between oculomotor-based search habits and navigational search in large-scale environments, indicating that real-world search efficiency may depend heavily on the alignment of statistical regularities with the observer’s initial field of view.

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• visual search