Department of Psychology of Developmental and Socialization Processes, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Via Dei Marsi, 78, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome, Foro Italico, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 17;13(1):13396. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-40510-0.
There is a raised interest in literature to use Virtual Reality (VR) technology as an assessment tool for cognitive domains. One of the essential advantages of transforming tests in an immersive virtual environment is the possibility of automatically calculating the test's score, a time-consuming process under natural conditions. Although the characteristics of VR can deliver different degrees of immersion in a virtual environment, the sense of presence could jeopardize the evolution of these practices. The sense of presence results from a complex interaction between human, contextual factors, and the VR environment. The present study has two aims: firstly, it contributes to the validation of a virtual version of the naturalistic action test (i.e., virtual reality action test); second, it aims to evaluate the role of sense of presence as a critical booster of the expression of cognitive abilities during virtual reality tasks. The study relies on healthy adults tested in virtual and real conditions in a cross-over research design. The study's results support the validity of the virtual reality action test. Furthermore, two structural equation models are tested to comprehend the role of sense of presence as a moderator in the relationship between cognitive abilities and virtual task performance.
人们对使用虚拟现实 (VR) 技术作为认知领域评估工具的兴趣日益浓厚。将测试转换到沉浸式虚拟环境中的一个重要优势是有可能自动计算测试的分数，而在自然条件下，这是一个耗时的过程。虽然 VR 的特点可以提供不同程度的虚拟环境沉浸感，但存在感可能会危及这些实践的发展。存在感是人类、上下文因素和 VR 环境之间复杂相互作用的结果。本研究有两个目的：首先，它有助于验证自然动作测试的虚拟版本（即虚拟现实动作测试）；其次，它旨在评估存在感作为在虚拟现实任务中表达认知能力的关键助推器的作用。该研究依赖于在交叉研究设计中在虚拟和真实条件下接受测试的健康成年人。该研究的结果支持虚拟现实动作测试的有效性。此外，还测试了两个结构方程模型，以理解存在感作为认知能力与虚拟任务表现之间关系的调节因素的作用。
