Effects of maze appearance on maze solving
Name
13414_2024_Article_3000.pdf
Size
1.22 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6580571c44691abdfe275f7c5a03a88a
Author(s)
Semizer, Yelda
Yu, Dian
Wan, Qianqian
Balas, Benjamin
Rosenholtz, Ruth
Date Issued
January 10, 2025
Journal
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
Publisher
Springer US
Citation
Semizer, Y., Yu, D., Wan, Q. et al. Effects of maze appearance on maze solving. Atten Percept Psychophys (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
As mazes are typically complex, cluttered stimuli, solving them is likely limited by visual crowding. Thus, several aspects of the appearance of the maze – the thickness, spacing, and curvature of the paths, as well as the texture of both paths and walls – likely influence the performance. In the current study, we investigate the effects of perceptual aspects of maze design on maze-solving performance to understand the role of crowding and visual complexity. We conducted two experiments using a set of controlled stimuli to examine the effects of path and wall thickness, as well as the style of rendering used for both paths and walls. Experiment 1 finds that maze-solving time increases with thicker paths (thus thinner walls). Experiment 2 replicates this finding while also showing that maze-solving time increases when mazes have wavy walls, which are likely more crowded, rather than straight walls. Our findings imply a role of both crowding and figure/ground segmentation in mental maze solving and suggest reformulating the growth cone models.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-024-03000-7
