The ability to learn routes though a virtual environment (VE) and to make novel shortcut between two locations were assessed in eighteen adults with intellecual disability and eighteen adults without intellectual disability matched on chronological age. Participants explored two routes (AB and AC) until they reached the learning criterion. Then, they were placed in B and were asked to find the shortest way to C (BC, five trials). Participants in both groups could learn the routes, but most of the participants with intellectual disability could not find the shortest route between B and C. However, the results also revealed important differences in the individuals with intellectual disability, with some participants having more efficient wayfinding behaviour than others. Individuals with intellectual disability may differ in the kind of spatial knowledge they extract from the environment and/or in the strategy they used to learn the routes.
The results confirm the findings in REF : participants with DS were able to learn the route, even though they needed more trials.
Route Learning and Shortcut Performance in Adults with Intellectual Disability: A Study with Virtual Environments
Research in developmental disabilities
Research in developmental disabilities
Psychology Medicine