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Use of Knowledge and Heuristics for Wayfinding in an Artificial Environment

The purpose of this study was to explore wayfinding behavior in an unfamiliar environment. The participants were 24 university freshmen. The main task was returning to the starting point after an 8-minute walk within complex buildings. The participants were encouraged to use the shortest path possible. A photo memory task, a route memory task, a pointing task and a sketch map of the route were also completed. Wayfinding performance was found to correlate with performances in the sketch map task and the pointing task, and with route scene memory. However, some participants who either drew incomplete sketch maps or had an inaccurate homing vector could also find their way with a minimum of errors. Their verbal explanations of their choices revealed that using route scenes, schema-like knowledge, environmental constraints, and information-seeking heuristics enabled them to find their way in the artificial environment.