ERIC Number: EJ1008437
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-May
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0891-4222
EISSN: N/A
Wayfinding Behaviour in Down Syndrome: A Study with Virtual Environments
Courbois, Yannick; Farran, Emily K.; Lemahieu, Axelle; Blades, Mark; Mengue-Topio, Hursula; Sockeel, Pascal
Research in Developmental Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, v34 n5 p1825-1831 May 2013
The aim of this study was to assess wayfinding abilities in individuals with Down syndrome (DS). The ability to learn routes though a virtual environment (VE) and to make a novel shortcut between two locations was assessed in individuals with DS (N = 10) and control participants individually matched on mental age (MA) or chronological age (CA). The results showed that most of the participants with DS were able to learn routes through the VE, even though they needed more trials than the CA controls to reach the learning criterion. However, they did not show flexible wayfinding behaviour because they were unable to find a shortcut between two known locations (unlike the CA controls). The results suggest that most individuals with DS can acquire knowledge about specific routes, but are unable to integrate that knowledge into a configurational understanding of the environment. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
Descriptors: Down Syndrome, Mental Age, Simulation, Comparative Analysis, Navigation, Cognitive Processes, Cognitive Ability
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A