Assessing the Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Gaming to Reduce Anxiety and Increase Cognitive Bandwidth

Recent research indicates that a majority of postsecondary students in North America “felt overwhelming anxiety” in the past few years, an effect that is negatively impacting their academic performance and overall well-being. Building on recent technology and cognitive priming research, we propose a theoretical framework and technology solution to address the student anxiety challenge using technologybased priming. As an initial test of our theoretical framework, this study aims to test the effectiveness of Virtual Reality gaming applications to reduce anxiety and increase cognitive bandwidth. In this preliminary, within-subjects study design, N=10, the primed participants showed a marked increase in cognitive test performance subsequent to the priming activity compared to the non-primed test session. The results also showed that highly anxious subjects derived more benefit from the priming activity than less anxious subjects.