Spatial Cognition & Virtual Reality
Exploring how virtual environments reshape spatial cognition, cognitive mapping, and philosophical questions about realism
Description
This project sits at the intersection of spatial navigation research, cognitive science, and philosophy of science. It examines how the hippocampus constructs cognitive maps via place and grid cells, and what happens to that process when the environment is virtual.
Using the Morris Water Maze and its virtual counterpart (vMWM) as anchor paradigms, the project investigates whether spatial cognition in VR differs meaningfully from real-world navigation — and what those differences reveal about realism, anti-realism, and the epistemic status of virtual experiments. A secondary thread examines VR as a knowledge-extension tool: how the sensory alterations introduced by a headset reshape the cognitive maps subjects form, and what this implies for experimental design in cognitive science.