Gender Differences in Navigation and Wayfinding using Mobile Augmented Reality

Abstract

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is sufficiently mature, where it is possible to evaluate improvement in human performance. A critical aspect of human performance is individual differences in AR. In the present study, the effect of gender on human performance in a “search and rescue” navigation task is assessed. Six conditions were investigated in the study: Two control conditions (paper map or compass prior to entering the maze), and four experimental conditions (combinations of egocentric and exocentric maps, and a continuously-on or on-demand map display). 120 subjects equally divided between males and females were tested. Pre and post test questionnaires were administered. Guilford-Zimmerman (G-Z) scores indicate that males perform better than females in spatial visualization and orientation tasks. The time for maze traversal for females exceeded that of males by 127 seconds on average for the no map condition. Also, males had better performance in covering the maze.