Background/Problem Neuropsychologists are often asked to evaluate patients’ functional capacities, yet traditional neuropsychological tests have limited correspondence with real-world outcomes. The Virtual Environment Grocery store (VEGS) is a virtual environment that stimulates shopping tasks. Previous research has found support for the construct validity of the VEGS among older adults (Parsons & Barnett, 2017); however, no extant research has examined relationships between the VEGS and adaptive functioning among older adults. Method Older adults (n = 30; age 43–90 M = 77.09, SD = 12.94) were administered the Virtual Reality Grocery Store (VEGS) and the Texas Functional Living Scale (TFLS) and completed the Instruments of Daily Activities (IADLS) Questionnaire. Results VEGS variables explained 39.6% of the variance in self-reported adaptive functioning (I, e., the IADLS) and 60.0% of the variance in performance-based adaptive functioning (i.e., the TFLS). Conclusion These results suggest that the VEGS is a predictor of adaptive functioning – particularly when measured with a performance-based measure – among older adults.
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 Virtual reality-based neuropsychological tests offer the ability to capture a variety of data while enabling standardized administration. The purpose of this study was to create an artificial neural network to examine the predictability of the Virtual Environment Grocery Store (VEGS) for neurocognitive impairment among older adults. Method Older adults (N = 71; age 55–90, M = 74.38, SD = 8.32; 13 with a neurocognitive diagnosis and 58 without) completed the VEGS as part of a neuropsychological evaluation. Results The multilayer perceptron found a model which had a 3.4% error rate. The VEGS sum of the learning trials was the most important predictor of this model (i = 0.45). Conclusion Results suggest that the VEGS is sensitive to detecting neurocognitive impairment among older adults, with the sum of the learning trials making a substantial contribution to the model’s accuracy.
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