When using virtual reality as a teaching tool, context and 'feeling real' matter - Phys.org

A caller survey by UCLA psychologists reveals that erstwhile VR is utilized to thatch language, discourse and realism matter.

The probe is published successful the diary npj Science of Learning.

"The discourse successful which we larn things tin assistance america retrieve them better," said Jesse Rissman, the paper's corresponding writer and a UCLA subordinate prof of psychology.

"We wanted to cognize if learning foreign languages successful virtual world environments could amended recall, particularly erstwhile determination was the imaginable for 2 sets of words to interfere with each other."

Researchers asked 48 English-speaking participants to effort to larn 80 words successful 2 phonetically akin African languages, Swahili and Chinyanja, arsenic they navigated virtual world settings.

Wearing VR headsets, participants explored 1 of 2 environments—a phantasy fairyland oregon a subject fabrication landscape—where they could click to larn the Swahili oregon Chinyanja names for the objects they encountered. Some participants learned some languages successful the aforesaid VR environment; others learned 1 connection successful each environment.

Participants navigated done the virtual worlds 4 times implicit the people of 2 days, saying the translations aloud each time. One week later, the researchers followed up with a popular quiz to spot however good the participants remembered what they had learned.

The results were striking: Subjects who had learned each connection successful its ain unsocial discourse mixed up less words and were capable to callback 92% of the words they had learned. In contrast, participants who had learned some sets of words successful the aforesaid VR discourse were much apt to confuse presumption betwixt the 2 languages and retained lone 76% of the words.

The survey is peculiarly timely due to the fact that truthful galore K-12 schools, colleges and universities moved to make online learning platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Apps similar Zoom supply a alternatively bland discourse for learning," Rissman said. "As VR exertion becomes much ubiquitous and affordable, distant learners could beryllium instantly teleported into unsocial and richly featured contexts for each class."

The experimentation was designed by Rissman and Joey Ka-Yee Essoe, the study's archetypal writer who was a UCLA doctoral pupil astatine the time.

Rissman said a cardinal predictor of the subjects' quality to clasp what they had learned was however immersed successful the VR satellite they felt. The little a subordinate felt similar a taxable successful a science experiment—and the much "at one" they felt with their avatar—the much the virtual contexts were capable to positively impact their learning.

"The much a person's encephalon was capable to reconstruct the unsocial enactment signifier associated with the learning context, the amended capable they were to callback the overseas words they had learned there," Rissman said.

Psychologists person agelong understood that radical thin to callback things much readily if they tin retrieve thing astir the surrounding discourse successful which they learned it—the alleged "context crutch" phenomenon. But erstwhile accusation is tied to contextual cues, radical tin person occupation recalling it aboriginal successful the lack of those cues.

For example, students mightiness larn Spanish successful the aforesaid benignant of schoolroom wherever they larn different subjects. When that happens, their Spanish vocabulary tin beryllium tied to the aforesaid contextual cues that are tied to different worldly they've been taught, similar the Pythagorean theorem oregon a Shakespeare play. Not lone does that akin discourse marque it easier to premix up oregon hide what they person learned, but it besides tin marque it harder to retrieve immoderate of the accusation extracurricular of a schoolroom setting.

"A cardinal takeaway is that if you larn the aforesaid happening successful aforesaid environment, you'll larn it truly fast," said Essoe, who is present a postdoctoral student astatine Johns Hopkins University. "But adjacent though you larn fast, you mightiness person occupation with recall. What we were capable to harness successful this probe takes vantage of some learning accelerated and improving callback successful caller environment."

To recognize the encephalon mechanisms that enactment context-dependent learning, the researchers recruited a abstracted radical of participants and scanned their brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging, oregon fMRI. As the subjects attempted to callback overseas words portion successful the scanner, their brain activity indicated that they were reasoning astir the context successful which they had learned each word.

That uncovering suggests that virtual world tin heighten learning if it is convincingly produced and if antithetic languages oregon scholastic subjects are taught successful highly distinctive environments.

Rissman said though the survey lone assessed however radical learned a overseas language, the results bespeak that VR could beryllium utile for teaching different subjects arsenic well. Similar approaches could besides beryllium utilized for intelligence and behavioral wellness therapies and to assistance patients adhere to doctors' instructions aft aesculapian visits: Patients mightiness beryllium capable to retrieve specified guidance amended if they're successful their ain homes portion chatting online with their doctors, for example.

"Variable contexts tin crushed accusation successful much biology cues," said Essoe.

More information: Joey Ka-Yee Essoe et al, Enhancing learning and retention with distinctive virtual world environments and intelligence discourse reinstatement, npj Science of Learning (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41539-022-00147-6