Nostalgia enhances route learning in a virtual environment

ABSTRACT

Salient landmarks enhance route learning. We hypothesised that semantically salient nostalgic landmarks would improve route learning compared to non-nostalgic landmarks. In two experiments, participants learned a route through a computer-generated maze using directional arrows and wall-mounted pictures. On the test trial, the arrows were removed, and participants completed the maze using only the pictures. In the nostalgia condition, pictures were of popular music artists and TV characters from 5 to 10 years ago. In the control condition, they were recent pictures of these same artists and characters. In Experiment 1, in the test trial, participants in the nostalgia condition completed the maze faster than controls. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated these findings and extended them by exploring boundary conditions. Participants had to learn two mazes sequentially. In Maze 1, we placed nostalgic/control landmarks only at non-decision points (whereas we placed them at decision points in Experiment 1). In Maze 2, we placed nostalgic/control landmarks at decision points during acquisition but removed them in the test trial (whereas they were present in the test trial in Experiment 1). In both mazes, participants in the nostalgia (compared to control) condition completed the test trial faster.

KEYWORDS:

• Nostalgia
• landmark-based navigation
• route leaning
• virtual maze
• semantic salience

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, ESR, upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We used the difference between the positive-landmark (M = 7.32, SE = 0.44) and neutral-landmark (M = 5.64, SE = 0.44) condition on reproduction of the eight-square sequence on the outline of the Walking Corsi Test (Palmiero & Piccardi, 2017, p. 5).

2 For exploratory purposes, we administered several additional scales that were not pertinent to our research objectives, including measures of trait-level (i.e. dispositional) spatial anxiety and trait-level nostalgia.

3 We report 90% confidence intervals for eta squared, because the F distribution is one sided (Steiger, 2004). This ensures that inferences based on p-values will agree with the lower confidence limit.

4 Four teachers who accompanied the students on their visit also completed the experiment. We excluded them from the final data analysis, because the nostalgic and control landmarks were tailored to high-school-aged individuals. Inclusion of the teachers’ responses did not alter the pattern of significant and non-significant findings.

5 For exploratory purposes, we administered several additional scales that were unrelated to our research objectives, including measures of trait-level (i.e. dispositional) spatial anxiety, psychological benefits of nostalgia, and task enjoyment.

6 Bootstrapping is a non-parametric resampling procedure that approximates the sampling distribution of the indirect effect (i.e. the ab product) by repeatedly sampling the dataset.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.