Experience-dependent Changes in Cue Integration during Spatial navigation

The ways in which prior exposure to cue conflict influences the integration of spatial information during navigation remain poorly understood. In this study, participants performed a homing task in fully immersive virtual reality, where visual landmarks and body-based self-motion cues were systematically manipulated to introduce varying frequencies of cue conflict. Behavioral results showed that increased cue conflict exposure led to larger response variability. A non-Bayesian sensory disparity model provided a better fit for the data than the Bayesian causal inference (BCI) model. Parameter estimates of the sensory disparity model indicated that cue conflict experience reduced the precision of self-motion cues, elevated attentional lapse rates, and biased self-motion perception, with the first two parameters contributing to the effect of cue conflict experience on behavioral response variability. These findings advance our understanding of how past experience with cue conflict shapes spatial navigation behavior.