Effect of Environment Immersivity on Encoding Strategies of Spatial Tasks

Abstract The main objective of the current project was to examine the effect of different viewing environments on individual's use of spatial frames of references while performing mental rotation task. Twenty five participants were administered a computerized mental rotation task presented in three different viewing environments: two-dimensional computer desktop (2D), three-dimensional large projector screen (3DP), and three-dimensional large projector screen with tracking (3DPT). The participants’ responses were compared to those obtained in fully-immersive virtual environment (VE) offered through the use of head-mounted displays. In 2D condition, the participants encoded the stimuli allocentrically, in relation to a computer screen. This is in contrast to a fully immersive VE, where participants encoded the images egocentrically, in relation to a viewer-centered frame of reference. In 3DP and 3DPT conditions, the participants tended to rely more on egocentric rather than allocentric encoding, although not to the same extent as in fully-immersive VEs. The change in participants’ responses in 3DP and 3DPTconditions, as compared to 2D condition, implies that large screen displays provide higher degree of immersivity than conventional 2D displays. However, in contrast to fully immersive VEs, large screen displays are insufficient to ensure the dominant use of a viewer-centered frame of reference.