Research Centre, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
Neuropsychol Rehabil. 2020 Apr;30(3):462-480. doi: 10.1080/09602011.2018.1477684. Epub 2018 May 29.
Virtual reality (VR) allows for the creation of ecological environments that could be used for cognitive assessment and intervention. This study comprises two parts that describe and assess an immersive VR task, the , which can be used to measure episodic memory. Part 1 addresses its applicability in healthy older adults by measuring presence, motivation, and cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 addresses its construct validity by investigating correlations between performance in the VR task and on a traditional experimental memory task, and by measuring whether the VR task is sensitive to age-related memory differences. Fifty-seven older and 20 younger adults were assessed in the , in which they memorised and fetched 12 familiar items. Part 1 showed high levels of presence, higher levels of motivation for the VR than for the traditional task, and negligible cybersickness symptoms. Part 2 indicates that memory performance in the VR task is positively correlated with performance on a traditional memory task for both age groups, and age-related differences were found on the VR and traditional memory tasks. Thus, the use of VR is feasible in older adults and the is a valid task to assess and train episodic memory in this population.
虚拟现实（VR）可以创建生态环境，用于认知评估和干预。本研究包括两部分，描述和评估了一种沉浸式 VR 任务，即 ，可用于测量情景记忆。第 1 部分通过测量存在感、动机和网络眩晕症状来评估其在健康老年人中的适用性。第 2 部分通过调查 VR 任务与传统实验记忆任务之间的相关性，以及测量 VR 任务是否对与年龄相关的记忆差异敏感，来评估其结构有效性。57 名老年人和 20 名年轻人在 中接受了评估，他们在其中记忆和检索 12 个熟悉的物品。第 1 部分表明存在水平较高，老年人对 VR 的动机比传统任务高，且网络眩晕症状可忽略不计。第 2 部分表明，对于两个年龄组，VR 任务的记忆表现与传统记忆任务的表现呈正相关，并且在 VR 和传统记忆任务中都发现了与年龄相关的差异。因此，在老年人中使用 VR 是可行的，并且 是评估和训练该人群情景记忆的有效任务。
