Aha! I know where I am: the contribution of visuospatial cues to reorientation in urban environments

Reorientation depends greatly on the perceived geometric information, which constantly changes during navigation in urban environments. Environmental novelty, as a driver of exploratory behavior, is likely to engender this spatial Aha! moment. The paper investigates the contribution of two qualitatively different types of novelty, corresponding to distinct visuospatial cues: (a) situations that cause surprise, e.g., a sudden change in spaciousness; versus (b) situations that engender mystery, e.g., a change in the complexity of visuospatial information and the promise of gaining new information. Visibility graph analysis is used to quantify and examine these hypotheses in relation to participants’ exploratory behavior and brain dynamics (EEG) during virtual navigation. The findings suggest that reorientation is a spatial boundary effect, associated primarily with a change in visuospatial complexity.