ORIENTATION AND SPACE O RIENTATION

The ecological or perceptual self pays attention to spatial and perceptual information in the environment. This allows us to maintain our orientation in natural and mediated environments as well as to orient ourselves when we enter

a mediated environment and to reorient when we return to the natural environment. Gibson focuses on the importance of orientation as necessary for adequate perception of the environment. With motion, whether self-motion or movement of something in the environment, the individual adjusts to changing stimulation. Information input into the active exploratory system changes with motion, thus generating further information. Reed (1988) notes that Gibson is pointing out the fact that “there could be neither perception, nor action, without a functional basic orientation system” (p. 227).

For Gibson, self-perception or proprioception is a component of the func- tioning of all perceptual systems. Thus, we can become aware of our own behavior through all the senses—vision, audition, kinesthesia, etc. Functional proprioception emphasizes both the “awareness of the results of changes in the observer’s relation to the environment” and “each perceptual system’s intricate capacities for adjust- ment to changing stimuli” (Reed, 1988, p. 227). We have a “basic orienting system” that incorporates all the perceptual and action systems and enables us to maintain our orientation to all the forces and surfaces around us. Movement requires several types of orientation including orienting the body (e.g., gravity and other forces), maintaining equilibrium, and proprioception of posture.

Lack of orientation disrupts perceptual exploration and action. This is true for both natural and mediated environments, since performance decrements on spatial and navigational tests following simulations are commonly observed in both. Explanations typically point to the types of stimuli and motion symptoms. However, the availability of direct apprehensions to the participant in virtual action space points as well to real-life factors infl uencing post-simulation performance. Therefore, we need to determine whether relevant real-life factors, including par- ticipation in sports, especially sports involving 3-D space, nausea, ocular diffi culties, disorientation, and enjoyment of 3-D entertainment, infl uence simulation emo- tion, symptoms, and performance outcomes. Researchers have already begun such investigations. A literature search shows a plethora of new studies of orientation (including spatial frames of reference, spatial information updating, and reorienta- tion) and disorientation (including causes, consequences, and prevention).

We can become disoriented when we spin ourselves around or when we watch certain mediated events. Siegel (1979–80) has noted that stimuli which produce dizziness, a symptom elicited in both simulations and the natural environment, can rarely

be separated into distinctly positive versus negative. He continues that play is one

294 Joan M. Preston

method for producing dizziness, with the motivation being creative and autonomous exploration of the internal or external environment. He points out that when dizziness has negative effects (e.g., autonomic arousal), those effects tend to overshadow positive effects (e.g., cortical arousal). When stimuli involve motion in virtual action space, symptoms (each of which refl ects disruption of spatial orientation to some degree) need not be interpreted as negative. They may be viewed as enjoyable if the participant views the medium as play, has high spatial and perceptual abilities that facilitate orientation, and/or if the participant enjoys similar real-life events. These individuals may interpret symptoms as a natural and expected part of a motion experience. To the extent that the participant has diffi culties with similar real-life events, motion stimuli may produce autonomic arousal and the individual will feel uncomfortable and disoriented and have poorer post-viewing performance.

ORIENTATION AND SPACE O RIENTATION