The acquisition of spatial navigational skills from dynamic versus static visualisations

Interactions between instruction visualisations and task mental representations in skill acquisition is arguably knowledge-domain dependent. This paper presents the design and preliminary results of an experiment that extends the knowledge-domain dependent model to the acquisition of spatial navigational skills. A between-group design is proposed and tested to compare post-learning navigational performances of different learner groups in a virtual environment. The preliminary results indicate a benefit of dynamic over static visualisations in the acquisition of spatial navigational skills, which is consistent with previous results. A full study with a larger sample size and multi-level comparative analysis is currently underway.