Physiological State and Learning Ability of Students in Normal and Virtual Reality Conditions: Complexity-Based Analysis

Abstract

Background Education and learning are the most important goals of all universities. For this purpose, lecturers use various tools to grab the attention of students and improve their learning ability. Virtual reality refers to the subjective sensory experience of being immersed in a computer-mediated world, and has recently been implemented in learning environments. Objective The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of a virtual reality condition on students’ learning ability and physiological state. Methods Students were shown 6 sets of videos (3 videos in a two-dimensional condition and 3 videos in a three-dimensional condition), and their learning ability was analyzed based on a subsequent questionnaire. In addition, we analyzed the reaction of the brain and facial muscles of the students during both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional viewing conditions and used fractal theory to investigate their attention to the videos. Results The learning ability of students was increased in the three-dimensional condition compared to that in the two-dimensional condition. In addition, analysis of physiological signals showed that students paid more attention to the three-dimensional videos. Conclusions A virtual reality condition has a greater effect on enhancing the learning ability of students. The analytical approach of this study can be further extended to evaluate other physiological signals of subjects in a virtual reality condition.

Complexity-Based Analysis of the Variations of Brain and Muscle Reactions in Walking and Standing Balance While Receiving Different Perturbations

“…Although the fractal theory has been widely applied in the analysis of the complexity of EEG signals in different conditions [e.g., external stimulation (Babini et al, 2020), detection of brain disorders (Namazi et al, 2020)], however, based on our search, only one reported work analyzed EEG signals during locomotion using fractal theory. In (Mujib Kamal et al, 2020), we showed that the variations of the complexity of EEG signals and walking paths are correlated.…”

A Meta-Review of Learning Research in Immersive Virtual Reality

“…As noted, while the larger body of literature has focused on cognitive and procedural domains, there is still a dearth of literature relating to outcomes having to do with emotion, or forms of behavioral learning. I-VR seems a promising area for behavioral and affective change, and I-VR research would greatly advance if the training research community explored learning in these non-technical, but still very important, forms of learning (Song & Fiore, 2017;Bian et al, 2015). We recommend that I-VR research work towards a more inter-professional approach.…”

“…This involves collecting the data in the virtual environment through the telemetry provided via the VR controllers and HMD (e.g., pose, posture, rate of VE interaction). New analytic techniques, such as fractal analysis to examine fractal scaling, may provide information with regard to the health of the user in the system (e.g., discomfort), and possibly the user's state of learning (Arcioni et al, 2019;Babini et al, 2020). Overall, though, we recommend that the training research community consider how it is that I-VR can more sophisticatedly assess learning.…”

Research on the Relationship between Students’ Learning Adaptability and Learning Satisfaction under the Mobile Media Environment

“…Hoskins showed that students with strong learning abilities also performed better in online tests [27]. Babini pointed out that a virtual reality environment played a greater role in improving students' learning ability [28]. Cheng showed that high-order cognitive learning skills are positively correlated with participants' performance [29].…”