Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms of Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Environments

Students and educators value the potential use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in the classroom to teach academic content as it may increase interest and motivation to learn, which in turn may increase learning outcomes. However, one criticism is that features of IVR, such as extraneous sounds, animations, and interactions, that are not relevant to the content of the lesson, as well as the affective arousal associated with the use of IVR, may be distracting to learning processes. To examine this distraction hypothesis, two experiments were conducted in which students viewed a biology (Experiment 1) or history (Experiment 2) lesson either in IVR or in a desktop lesson containing the same content, with or without practice questions. In both experiments, students who viewed the lesson on the desktop in a PowerPoint (Experiment 1) or an interactive video (Experiment 2) outperformed those who viewed the IVR lessons on transfer tests. The desktop lessons led to higher cognitive engagement based on EEG measures in both experiments, and less self-reported extraneous cognitive load in Experiment 1. Participants also reported more high-arousal positive emotions after the IVR lessons in both experiments, and experienced higher physiological arousal based on heart-rate measures after the IVR lessons compared to the desktop lessons in Experiment 2. The same pattern of results was found when adjunct practice questions were or were not included in the lessons. Across both experiments, mediation analyses suggest that the negative relationship between instructional media and learning outcomes can be explained by self-reported cognitive processing or emotional arousal, particularly for retention test performance. Overall, immersive environments may create high emotional arousal and cognitive distraction during learning, which leads to poorer learning outcomes than desktop environments

Fork of Placebo Effects in Cognitive Training

Full statistical analysis plan of the pilot data for a study examining the role of participant expectations in cognitive training

Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms of Immersive Virtual Reality Learning Environments

Students and educators value the potential use of immersive virtual reality (IVR) in the classroom to teach academic content as it may increase interest and motivation to learn, which in turn may increase learning outcomes. However, one criticism is that features of IVR, such as extraneous sounds, animations, and interactions, that are not relevant to the content of the lesson, as well as the affective arousal associated with the use of IVR, may be distracting to learning processes. To examine this distraction hypothesis, two experiments were conducted in which students viewed a biology (Experiment 1) or history (Experiment 2) lesson either in IVR or in a desktop lesson containing the same content, with or without practice questions. In both experiments, students who viewed the lesson on the desktop in a PowerPoint (Experiment 1) or an interactive video (Experiment 2) outperformed those who viewed the IVR lessons on transfer tests. The desktop lessons led to higher cognitive engagement based on EEG measures in both experiments, and less self-reported extraneous cognitive load in Experiment 1. Participants also reported more high-arousal positive emotions after the IVR lessons in both experiments, and experienced higher physiological arousal based on heart-rate measures after the IVR lessons compared to the desktop lessons in Experiment 2. The same pattern of results was found when adjunct practice questions were or were not included in the lessons. Across both experiments, mediation analyses suggest that the negative relationship between instructional media and learning outcomes can be explained by self-reported cognitive processing or emotional arousal, particularly for retention test performance. Overall, immersive environments may create high emotional arousal and cognitive distraction during learning, which leads to poorer learning outcomes than desktop environments

Expectation effects in working memory training.

There is a growing body of research focused on developing and evaluating behavioral training paradigms meant to induce enhancements in cognitive function. It has recently been proposed that one mechanism through which such performance gains could be induced involves participants expectations of improvement. However, no work to date has evaluated whether it is possible to cause changes in cognitive function in a long-term behavioral training study by manipulating expectations. In this study, positive or negative expectations about cognitive training were both explicitly and associatively induced before either a working memory training intervention or a control intervention. Consistent with previous work, a main effect of the training condition was found, with individuals trained on the working memory task showing larger gains in cognitive function than those trained on the control task. Interestingly, a main effect of expectation was also found, with individuals given positive expectations showing larger cognitive gains than those who were given negative expectations (regardless of training condition). No interaction effect between training and expectations was found. Exploratory analyses suggest that certain individual characteristics (e.g., personality, motivation) moderate the size of the expectation effect. These results highlight aspects of methodology that can inform future behavioral interventions and suggest that participant expectations could be capitalized on to maximize training outcomes

Video games and higher cognition

Over the past several decades, technological advancements in entertain- ment systems have given rise to a multibillion-dollar video gaming industry. Today, video games are one of the most ubiquitous forms of entertainment around the world, with an estimated 2.7 billion video game players world- wide (Statista, 2020). In the United States, 65% of adults play video games, spending an average of 4.8 hours per week playing computer, console, or mobile video games (Entertainment Software Association, 2019). Given the large amount of time individuals throughout the population spend playing video games, scientists have sought to examine the effects of video game exposure on a host of human behaviors and abilities. Such inquiries have spanned the entirety of psychological sciences, from educational psychology (e.g., Clark et al., 2016; Mayo, 2009), to clinical psychology (e.g., Biagianti & Vinogradov, 2013; Eichenbaum et al., 2015), to social psychology (Gentile et al., 2009; Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2011), to the focus of this chapter, cognitive psychology. Within cognitive psychology, the majority of work to date has examined the impact of video game play in domains such as execu- tive functions (e.g., inhibition, cognitive control, selective attention), cogni- tive flexibility (e.g., multitasking, task switching), and perceptual capabilities (e.g., peripheral vision, multisensory integration; Bavelier et al., 2018, 2012). Yet, a growing body of research has focused on what might be considered “higher level cognition,” in particular, intelligence, problem solving, and cre- ativity. These latter three domains will be the focus of this chapter