Children's memory of a story experienced with virtual reality versus traditional media technology

Abstract

Immersive Virtual Reality Technology (IVR) is a visual multi-sensory computer-simulated environment that perceptually surrounds an individual, creating the illusion that one has “stepped inside” and is included in, and interacting with the generated world. Although IVR has been suggested as a tool to enhance learning, existing work has not examined how IVR presentations, compared with other types of storytelling, facilitate or interfere with children’s memory formation. Here, we present data from a study of seventy 6- and 7-year-old children randomly assigned to experience a story in one of three modalities: IVR, video, or a paper-based book. We assessed the children’s story recall and their ability to identify the protagonist’s emotions. Results showed that, overall, children in the IVR condition performed better in the memory-recall task than the children in the video and book conditions. The most pronounced difference in memory performance was between the IVR and book conditions. In the IVR versus video conditions, 6-year-olds performed significantly better in the IVR condition than in the video condition, while 7-year-olds performed similarly in both digital-story conditions. We found no effects of condition on children’s attribution of emotions to the story’s protagonist. We conclude that IVR may enhance children’s ability to learn story content in certain situations.

Immersive virtual reality for learning about ecosystems: effect of two signaling levels and feedback on action decisions

“…Recent studies conducted within the same framework have demonstrated a positive effect of IVR and interactivity on enjoyment, interest, self-efficacy, expected outcomes, perceived embodiment, spatial presence, motivation and behavioral intention changes compared to the same content presented using 2D desktop or conventional multimedia technologies, and have done so in very different fields and subject areas ( Ahn et al, 2022 ; Andersen et al, 2022 ; Makransky and Klingenberg, 2022 ; Makransky and Mayer, 2022 ; Petersen et al, 2022 ; Vandeweerdt et al, 2022 ; Plechatà et al, 2022a , b ; Bagher et al, 2023 ; Stenberdt and Makransky, 2023 ). A similar pattern of results was found with young children asked to perform tasks such as remembering and recalling a story and the related emotions ( Araiza-Alba et al, 2020a ), understanding and recalling seaside safety instructions ( Araiza-Alba et al, 2021b ) and problem solving ( Araiza-Alba et al, 2021a ).…”

“…In their own meta-analysis, Coban et al (2022) , considered fourteen previous meta-analyses and 105 independent ESs (Effect Sizes) from 48 primary studies: They found an overall ES of g = 0.38, which corresponds to a small to medium positive effect. Araiza-Alba et al (2020a , b) arrived at a similar conclusion concerning the use of desktop VR and IVR with children.…”

Promoting Children Tourism Through Applying Virtual Reality to the Egyptian Child Museum.

“…The sensation of presence and immersion are frequently connected with higher levels of involvement and more intense emotions and aspects that are associated with improved learning outcomes. Hence, the higher the sense of presence and emotional involvement during the experience, the easier the children will recall the content presented to them (Araiza-Alba et al, 2020). In terms of children with special needs, as well as those who are visually impaired, autistic, have social anxieties or have mental health issues, VR brings possibilities for socializing, exploration, adventure, and experiences that they would not have in the actual world.…”

The effect of microlevel and macrolevel signaling on learning with 360° videos

“…Apart from entertainment purposes, such video material has been used within a wide variety of topics, such as sports, news coverage, and, of course, education (for detailed examples, please see Araiza‐Alba et al, 2020; Barreda‐Ángeles et al, 2021; Ivars‐Nicolás et al, 2020; Shafi et al, 2020). Particularly for this purpose, such videos provide several benefits (Violante et al, 2019), including the potential to take on others' perspectives, experience otherwise inaccessible situations, or perceive a sense of freedom by choosing an individual vantage point.…”