Abstract
Of much interests have been spatial cognition and wayfinding by the blind. The traditional approach to spatial cognition and locomotion have taken the central problem to be what kind of cognitive map the blind establish. The main reason for motivating such kind of studies is why holding a map in mind has been thought of as being crucial for blind travellers to reach to a destination. Review of previous studies leads to contradictory results; while visual experience and visual modality set influence on accuracy of cognitive map, some studies indicate the individual difference rather than these effects. The basic ideas of ecological approach offered by J. J. Gibson will be outlined. This approach to environment perception and locomotion concerns how organisms wayfind and reach a destination. The purpose of ecological studies is to determine information picked up in perceptual flows such as optical flow and to demonstrate some relationship between detected invariant structure of environment on the basis of information and performance of wayfinding. One challenging study which applied this approach to wayfinding by the blind will be shown. The results suggest as follows. First, by taking an ecological approach, it is possible to reveal how blind travellers negotiate through environment. Second, it is not so easy to evaluate accuracy of orientation defined by Gibson.
