Sanal ortamlarda yön bulma yetisi

ABSTRACTTHE SENSE OF DIRECTION IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTSZ. Gözde KutluMFA in Interior Architecture and Environmental DesignSupervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Halime DemirkanMay, 2005Improvements in the computer technology lead people to investigate thepotential of the virtual environments. The spatial factors, that are significantfor spatial navigation in real- world environments, are important also in virtualenvironments. Performances of people during navigation through a virtualenvironment may be influenced by the individual differences as well as thelearning method of the layout. In this experiment, sense of direction as animportant spatial ability has been investigated considering the influence ofgender and learning methodology in the virtual environments (VEs). Theanalysis of the experiment showed that sense of direction has a positiveeffect on the performances of the independent viewpoint participants inmisaligned questions. Apart from this, contrary to the earlier bias, nosignificant difference was found related to gender and sense of directionability as well as the learning performances of the participants in the VE.Keywords: Spatial Cognition, Sense of direction, Virtual Environments.iii