The ability to travel independently is a vital part of an autonomous life. It is important to investigate to what degree people with acquired brain injuries (ABI) suffer from navigation impairments. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and characteristics of objective and subjective navigation impairments in the population of ABI patients. A large-scale online navigation study was conducted with 435 ABI patients and 7474 healthy controls. Participants studied a route through a virtual environment and completed 5 navigation tasks that assessed distinct functional components of navigation ability. Subjective navigation abilities were assessed using the Wayfinding questionnaire. Patients were matched to controls using propensity score matching. Overall, performance on objective navigation tasks was significantly lower in the ABI population compared to the healthy controls. The landmark recognition, route continuation and allocentric location knowledge tasks were most vulnerable to brain injury. The prevalence of subjective navigation impairments was higher in the ABI population compared to the healthy controls. In conclusion, a substantial proportion (39.1%) of the ABI population reports navigation impairments. We advocate the evaluation of objective and subjective navigation ability in neuropsychological assessments of ABI patients.@en

Mostly, restorative environments, like parks and forests, are only thought of in the real world. However, one can wonder whether their restorative effects translate to a virtual world; and whether the environment itself makes any difference. In order to assess the possible translation of restorative properties from the real world to a virtual setting, we developed Resto Quest, a single-player, first-person exploration game, designed to investigate the possible restorative effects of both natural and urban virtual environments. Resto Quest is playable on a normal personal computer, and its main game play loop consists of exploring the environment, locating in it a task to accomplish, and completing a simple minigame. After completion of each minigame, a positive change in the scenery takes place. Evaluation of Resto Quest has shown that players found its game mechanics relaxing, and that the minigames offer balanced difficulty between two interchangeable environments.@en

In recent years, the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality (ARNR) has taken a larger role within training and education of various fields, but not every individual experiences the benefits that AR and VR technology are thought to provide. The perspective taking skill of an individual may be a good indicator of the effectiveness that AR and VR training can achieve. However, we found that the tests in other research targeting small scale perspective taking are few and limited, as perspective taking is often hard to distinguish from mental rotation. Therefore, we designed and developed A Hole New Perspective, a serious game created specifically to test and train an individual’s perspective-taking ability. A Hole New Perspective focuses on the relationship between a 3D object floating in the air and a 2D hole on a moving wall. The core game mechanics consists of having the player rotate the object so that it fits in the hole, before the wall hits the object. Because players do not always have an aligned view with the hole, they have to call on their spatial perspective-taking abilities, in addition to mental rotation. We tested the game with a variety of test subjects, and compared these test results with the Perspective Taking/Spatial orientation Test. Early results have shown that performance in the game corresponds to mental rotation ability. Furthermore, there are indications that improvement in spatial ability through the game is selectively present for those with lower spatial abilities. This further substantiates the need for a more individualized approach when offering AR and VR in education. Additional training may be needed for some, but not all students.@en