Beckman Institute            University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign              University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Navigation by Dead Reckoning


How do we navigate? Landmarks are obviously important for navigation. Another navigation method is called dead reckoning. This refers to our ability to figure out where we are relative to some starting point by integrating the distance and directions that we've traveled.

Hank in the Maze
For example, a perfect dead reckoner would know, after traveling from the 'X' to 1 to 2 to 3 to 4, how far and in what direction he or she would have to travel to get back to the 'X'. Some insects, such as desert ants, are very good at this; how well can humans do it?



In these experiments, participants will navigate a path in a virtual maze and then indicate the distance and direction to their starting point. The experimenter will vary different aspects of the maze to determine the limits to human dead reckoning ability.

Spatial Updating in Complex Environments
Cube Experiments Main Page


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