Objective: Psychologists have long used nonsensical information in the study of learning and memory (Ebbinghaus, 1885). Nonsensical information makes it difficult to rely on previous learning and thus increases task novelty (Quent et al., 2021). Little extant research has investigated the impact of task novelty in everyday activities, which are often overlearned. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of task novelty on a procedural learning and memory task in virtual reality. Method: Healthy young adults (N = 41; ages 18–25, M = 18.73, SD = 1.38) completed the Virtual Kitchen Protocol (VKP; Barnett, Parsons, & Childers, 2021), a virtual reality-based measure of learning and memory for meal preparation of both regular (e.g., cooking an egg) and nonsensical (e.g., placing a menu in a toaster) dishes. Results: Results of a Wilcoxon signed-rank test found that in immediate recall, participants demonstrated better recall for preparing regular dishes (M = 31.51, SD = 3.33) than nonsensical dishes (M = 26.68, SD = 4.75); z = 4.699. p < 0.001.; after a 20-minute delay, participants still had better recall for preparing regular dishes (M = 32.81, SD = 2.44) than the nonsensical ones (M = 27.32, SD = 4.38); z = 5.288, p < 0.001. Conclusions: Task novelty had a negative impact on recall for everyday procedural tasks in virtual reality. Overlearned behaviors may affect performance on measures of everyday activities, but the use of nonsensical analog tasks may provide a means of controlling for task familiarity.
Objective: The Virtual Environment Grocery Store (VEGS; Parsons & McMahan, 2017) has demonstrated relationships with older adults’ adaptive functioning as measured both by self-report and with a performance-based test (Hardesty et al., 2021). However, age is an important predictor of adaptive functioning among older adults (Weber et al., 2019). The purpose of this study was to investigate the incremental validity of the VEGS. We hypothesized that the VEGS long delay free recall would explain variance in adaptive functioning beyond that which is accounted for by age. Method: Older adults (n = 98; age 65–90, M = 75.82, SD = 6.27) were administered the Virtual Environment Grocery Store (VEGS) and the Texas Functional Living Scale (TFLS) and completed the Instruments of Daily Activities Scale (IADLS) Questionnaire. Results: Age explained 30.8% of the variance in TFLS. Inclusion of the VEGS long delay free recall meant that the model was able to explain 48.0% of the variance (R2 change F = 1.28, p < 0.001). Age explained 17.2% of the variance in IADLS scores; the inclusion of the VEGS long delay free recall brought this to 21.5% (R2 change F = 7.03, p = 0.03). Conclusion: Among older adults, age is an important predictor of adaptive functioning as measured by self-report and performance-based test. The VEGS was able to explain substantial variance in older adults’ adaptive functioning beyond age, particularly when measured with a performance-based test. These results are consistent with the notion that the VEGS measures abilities relevant to older adult’s daily functioning.
Objective: Virtual reality-based neuropsychological tests allow for immersive stimuli, which may increase ecological validity, and allows for the inclusion of standardized distractors. The Virtual Apartment Stroop test has demonstrated evidence of construct validity among healthy older adults, but no extant research has investigated its use among clinical populations. The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate the Virtual Apartment Stroop test as a predictor of neurocognitive disorder among older adults. Method: The Virtual Apartment Stroop test was administered to older adults (n = 34; aged 61-90, M = 72.15, SD = 7.15; 44.1% men, 55.9% women) with (n = 7) or without (n = 27) a neurocognitive disorder as determined by a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. In the Virtual Apartment, the participant is situated in a home environment and Stroop test stimuli occur in single-item presentation on the television screen. Participants were administered the Virtual Apartment Stroop test both with and without distractors, with the order counterbalanced. In the distractor condition, distracting stimuli appear in various locations in the participant’s field of view. Results: A total score was created by summing the total correct in the distractors and no distractors conditions. Binary logistic regression found that this score explained 17.5-27.5% of the variance in neurocognitive diagnosis, (Χ2 = 6.56, df = 1, p = .01, odds ratio: 0.97) and the model was able to correctly classify 85.3% of cases. Conclusion(s): These results provide preliminary evidence that the Virtual Apartment Stroop task is sensitive to neurocognitive diagnosis among older adults.
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