Intact spatial updating with severely degraded vision

Abstract

Critical to low-vision navigation are the abilities to recover scale and update a 3-D representation of space. In order to investigate whether these abilities are present under low-vision conditions, we employed the triangulation task of eyes-closed indirect walking to previously viewed targets on the ground. This task requires that the observer continually update the location of the target without any further visual feedback of his/her movement or the target's location. Normally sighted participants were tested monocularly in a degraded vision condition and a normal vision condition on both indirect and direct walking to previously viewed targets. Surprisingly, we found no difference in walked distances between the degraded and normal vision conditions. Our results provide evidence for intact spatial updating even under severely degraded vision conditions, indicating that participants can recover scale and update a 3-D representation of space under simulated low vision. © 2010 The Psychonomic Society, Inc.