Study of Youth Navigation Strategies: Building Routes on the Megapolis Virtual Map

Created on 16th January 2022

Conference: The Asian Conference on Psychology & the Behavioral Sciences (ACP2022)
Title: Study of Youth Navigation Strategies: Building Routes on the Megapolis Virtual Map
Stream: General Psychology
Presentation Type: Virtual Poster Presentation
Authors:
Alyona Matveeva, Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia
Irina Vorobyova, Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia
Olga Kruzhkova, Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia

Abstract:

The concept of "navigation strategy" is one of the central constructs in modern cognitive psychology. This approach is considered by experts as a process of human orientation in the environment based on existing ideas about space, individual experience, and external landmarks, including virtual services. To identify the features of building routes in the environment of a large metropolis by youth, a laboratory experiment was organized and conducted using the Tobii Pro Spectrum eye tracker. The study involved 30 people aged from 19 to 26, where 40% were men and 60% - women, with different experience of real urban environment interacting. An electronic map of a large Russian metropolis (Yekaterinburg) was shown to the respondents. They were asked to offer a walking path - from the starting point of the route to the end point (along 5 pre-designed routes). An analysis of the youth navigation strategies in an urban environment when interacting with an electronic map showed the following results: the walking routes built on a city electronic map are not optimized in length but simplified. The gender and experience of living in a metropolis environment are not of decisive importance for choosing the trajectory between the start and end points of the route, as well as for its length and optimization when laying the route on the city electronic map. In addition, distinctive trends were identified in the youth navigation strategies when interacting with the electronic map of the city: the discreteness of iconic objects of the urban environment.