Human spatial abilities have been investigated for many years. The reason of why some people are better than the others in wayfinding is still a mystery that is trying to be understood (Waller, 2005). One of the approaches in understanding individual differences in wayfinding process is to examine the human sense of direction in the context of environment and spatial cognition.
Improvements in the computer technology lead people to investigate the potential of the virtual environments. The spatial factors, that are significant for spatial navigation in real-world environments, are also important in virtual environments. Performances of people during navigation through a virtual environment may be influenced by the individual differences as well as the learning method of layout. In this study, sense of direction as an important spatial ability has been investigated considering the influence of gender and learning methodology in the virtual environments. The analysis of the experiment showed that sense of direction has a positive effect on the performances of the independent viewpoint participants in misaligned questions. Apart from this, contrary to some bias, no significant difference was found related to gender and sense of direction ability as well as the learning performances of the participants in the virtual environment.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Spatial Cognition, Sense of Direction, Gender, Virtual Environments
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