Testing of Visuospatial Cognitive Functions in Virtual Reality Environment

Abstract

– Visuospatial cognitive functions play a crucial role in human cognition. In recent years., these functions have sparked interest among researchers., neuroscientists and psychologists., focusing on their training., assessment and restoration. Virtual reality (VR) provides an immersive environment., which can be used for stimulation of these cognitive functions and its effects that can be measured afterwards. The experimental procedure., described in this paper., bring us closer to understanding how a VR experience., in a gamified form using a tower defense genre game., may improve our visuospatial cognitive functions. An incremental development., described in this paper., is a shift from the use of a unique but expensive VR CAVE to a more flexible., smaller and cheaper solution – a VR headset. The development utilizes a progressive mix of web and VR technologies. The presented approach can contribute to a new method of experiment participants testing., even outside a laboratory environment.