Cognizione spaziale ed ambienti virtuali: in che modo l'interazione in ambienti 3D generati dal computer premette lo studio di abilità spaziali

The exploration of a real environment is not the unique modality trough which people can acquire a complete spatial knowledge. The construction of spatial knowledge is also possible by interacting with external representation, like visual or descriptive simulations. Several studies on spatial cognition have generally used measurement of participant's behaviour in real or artificial environment, grounding on static or dynamical simulation, but rarely on interactive ones. The virtual reality constitutes a new and versatile method for spatial cognition research area. It become an important tool for investigating the nature of representations that agents are able to acquire from the environment simulation and from the interactions supported from this kind of simulation systems. The creation of interactive graphical 3D environments (virtual environments), reconciling the three aspect considered on, allows to have a space simulation extremely flexible in order to induce a steady monitoring on experimental conditions. The aim of this paper is to provide a reasoned view of this new methodology application in a specific area, like spatial cognition, in which the interaction covers an essential role.