ArticlePloS one2019
Virtual navigation tested on a mobile app is predictive of real-world wayfinding navigation performance.
Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Early detection of diseases causing dementia using digital navigation and gait measures: A systematic review of evidence.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Pooled it
- Trial
- Hippocampal subfield plasticity is associated with improved spatial memory.Communications biology · 2024Trial
- Article
- Designing for Wayfinding in VR: Linking Navigation Interfaces to Spatial Learning and Cognitive Mapping.Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. CHI Conference · 2026Article
- Virtual Morris Water Task: Procedures and Protocols for the Assessment of Spatial Navigation and Memory.Current protocols · 2026Article
- Differences in spatial cognitive performance and cognitive load between pilots and student pilots in virtual reality environments.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Molecular Crossroads: Shared and Divergent Molecular Signatures in Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Immersive, Open-World Virtual Reality for Dementia Care: NeuroVRX Pilot Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Investigating the associations between tau and mental orientation among cognitively unimpaired individuals.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2025Article
- Separable cognitive and motor decline tracked across adult life-span for goal-directed navigation.iScience · 2025Article
- Individual differences in navigation skill: towards reliable and valid measures.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- MemScreen: A smartphone application for detection of mild cognitive impairment: A validation study: Smartphone App for MCI Detection.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2025Article
- Learning the layout of different environments: common or dissociated abilities?Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2025Article
- Navigating space and the developing mind.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Education Is Positively and Causally Linked With Spatial Navigation Ability Across the Lifespan.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2025Article
- Predicting real-world navigation performance from a virtual navigation task in older adults.PloS one · 2025Article
- Dementia and Video Games: Systematic and Bibliographic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Ecological brain: reframing the study of human behaviour and cognition.Royal Society open science · 2024Review
- Architectural styles of curiosity in global Wikipedia mobile app readership.Science advances · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Virtual reality environments presented on tablets and smartphones have potential to aid the early diagnosis of conditions such as Alzheimer's dementia by quantifying impairments in navigation performance. However, it is unclear whether performance on mobile devices can predict navigation errors in the real world. We compared the performance of 49 participants (25 females, 18-35 years old) at wayfinding and path integration tasks designed in our mobile app 'Sea Hero Quest' with their performance at similar tasks in a real-world environment. We first performed this experiment in the streets of London (UK) and replicated it in Paris (France). In both cities, we found a significant correlation between virtual and real-world wayfinding performance and a male advantage in both environments, although smaller in the real world (Cohen's d in the game = 0.89, in the real world = 0.59). Results in London and Paris were highly similar, and controlling for familiarity with video games did not change the results. The strength of the correlation between real world and virtual environment increased with the difficulty of the virtual wayfinding task, indicating that Sea Hero Quest does not merely capture video gaming skills. The fact that the Sea Hero Quest wayfinding task has real-world ecological validity constitutes a step toward controllable, sensitive, safe, low-cost, and easy to administer digital cognitive assessment of navigation ability.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.