Real-time Continuous Uncertainty Annotation (RCUA) for Spatial Navigation Studies

This study introduces two methods for continuously measuring uncertainty during human navigation in complex buildings: one using a joystick (RCUA), and the other with annotations on videos of recent navigation activity (CUA). To evaluate the usability, reliability, and validity of both approaches, we conducted a study with 54 participants. We assessed the measures' reactivity during different sign-seeing events. We also evaluated the convergent validity of both measures by comparing their outcomes with a self-report questionnaire, and assessed their discriminative and predictive validity by comparing uncertain values between known groups and correlating those values with wayfinding performance. Our findings suggest that both approaches were valid at the task level, but RCUA was better at capturing fine-grained dynamics of human experience. These continuous uncertainty measures can provide valuable insights into the fleeting nature of human experience and help identify "problem spots" for wayfinding in complex buildings.