Spatial orientation in 3-D desktop displays: using rooms for organizing information.

INTRODUCTION

Spatial orientation is an important component of many everyday activities. Hunt's (2002) definition is typical: "Spatial orientation involves representation of the space about us, and the related ability to reason about movement within that space" (p. 751. Representation refers to knowledge of the spatial characteristics of an environment and the objects and avenues within it. Following Siegel and White (1975), most investigators make a distinction among three different kinds of spatial representations: People may have declarative knowledge of the identities of landmarks, procedural knowledge of navigation routes--especially the pattern of turns needed to arrive at a destination--and configural (or ...