Taking the right (or left?) turn: effects of landmark salience on the retrieval of route directions

We test the effect of a landmark’s visual and structural salience on memory retrieval of turning directions at intersections in a virtual environment. Across three studies, we find an increased decision correctness when the location of the visually salient landmark converges with the turning direction. This pattern is robust across various perspectives, including the return path. We find no performance differences between route repetition and return path. We find some evidence to turn toward a visually salient landmark even if this is not correct. Taken together, a visually salient landmark helps if located in the turning direction, but might be detrimental to a navigator’s ability to recall the correct direction if located on the opposite side.