Preliminary Empirical Evaluation of Virtual Reality as a Training Tool for Visual-Spatial Tasks.

摘要

The training potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technology was explored. Thirty-one adults were trained and tested on spatial skill in a VR. They learned a sequence of button and knob responses on a VR console and performed flawlessly on the same console. One-half of the group were trained with a rote strategy; the rest used a meaningful strategy. Response time were equivalent for both groups and decreased significantly over five test trials indicating that learning continued on VR tests. The same subjects practiced navigating through a VR building, which had three floors with four rooms on each floor. The dependent measure was the number of rooms traversed on routes that differed from training routes. Many subjects completed test in the fewest rooms possible. All subjects learned configurational knowledge according to the criterion of taking paths that were significantly shorter than that predicted by a random walk as determined by a Monte Carlo analysis. The results were discussed as a departure point for empirically testing the training potential of VR technology.