The influence of wayfinding strategy and landmark type on wayfinding performance in virtual reality environments: Mediating effect of perceived stress

The effectiveness and applicability of landmarks might depend on an individual's specific wayfinding strategy, as people with different wayfinding strategies prefer to use particular spatial knowledge that can be acquired from the information provided by certain landmark types. From this perspective, properly matching wayfinding strategies and landmark types might reduce negative emotional arousal and facilitate successful wayfinding. Therefore, the present study tested the interaction between wayfinding strategy (survey vs. route) and landmark type (global vs. local) on wayfinding performance, as well as the mediating effect of perceived stress using a virtual wayfinding task. Participants located and remembered target positions using either global or local landmarks during the memory stage. Then, they searched for the targets based on their memories during the recall stage, while their facial expressions were recorded to indicate objective perceived stress. Afterward, participants rated their subjective perceived stress. Better wayfinding performance was indicated by shorter extra distances and less extra time. The results showed that people with survey strategies perceived less stress and performed better when wayfinding with global landmarks than with local landmarks, while those with route strategies showed opposite but insignificant trends. The partial mediating effect of perceived stress revealed that matching survey strategies with global landmarks and route strategies with local landmarks reduced perceived stress, thereby enhancing wayfinding performance. These findings might not only help bridge theoretical gaps in understanding how environmental and personal factors interact to improve wayfinding experience and performance but also provide practical insights for designing personalized navigation aid systems tailored to individuals' wayfinding strategies in real life.