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Learning aptitude, spatial orientation and cognitive flexibility tested in a virtual labyrinth after virtual stress induction

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Psychology, July 2015
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (56th percentile)
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Title
Learning aptitude, spatial orientation and cognitive flexibility tested in a virtual labyrinth after virtual stress induction
Published in
BMC Psychology, July 2015
DOI 10.1186/s40359-015-0080-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Marcel Delahaye, Patrick Lemoine, Shanique Cartwright, Gunnar Deuring, Johannes Beck, Marlon Pflueger, Marc Graf, Henning Hachtel

Abstract

Under stressful conditions such as in an emergency situation, efficient information processing is essential for reasonable responses. Virtual Reality (VR) technology is used to induce stress and to test three main cognitive functions for decision making in stressful situations. A VR task was developed to induce stress following the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) protocol and two VR cognitive performance tests to measure learning aptitude, spatial orientation and cognitive flexibility. Participants (N = 31) gave a public speech in front of a virtual audience (TSST) and later had to find their way out of different VR labyrinths. The first exercise tested spatial orientation and learning aptitude where participants had to learn aspects of the ground layout and geometric icons had to be identified as correct in order to be able to exit. The second labyrinth tested cognitive flexibility on the background of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Correlations were analyzed using Kendall Tau Correlation (One-tailed tests with p set to 0.05 for all analyses). Heart rate (HR) was calculated from the RR time values and averaged across the TSST- speech and the post-stress period. Autonomic nervous system reactivity was defined as the deviation of HR during TSST- speech condition from post-stress baseline measurement. A repeated-measures t-test was used to analyze differences. The newly developed virtual stress test was successfully adapted from the original TSST. Participants perceived the task as stressful and scored an average of 5.7 points on a 1-8 Likert Scale. As a physiological stress parameter, increased heart rates of the participants showed that they were more stressed during the TSST procedure compared to the post-stress period. Also, the subjective stress perception, has a strong correlation with the results of the cognitive tasks performed after the stress induction. The more a participant experienced the TSST as stressful, the lower their learning aptitude and spatial orientation were found to be at the end of the study. On the other hand, if someone perceived the virtual TSST as "unexpected", as an indicator for a mild stress response, their cognitive flexibility was improved. Potential Implications: The findings indicate that both, the VR stress induction scenario using TSST, as well as the VR cognitive tests, are a first successful step towards a better ecological validity in neuropsychological testing.

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The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 6 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 78 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Israel 1 1%
Unknown 77 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 14 18%
Student > Master 12 15%
Researcher 9 12%
Student > Bachelor 7 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 4 5%
Other 11 14%
Unknown 21 27%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Psychology 16 21%
Computer Science 7 9%
Sports and Recreations 5 6%
Neuroscience 4 5%
Engineering 4 5%
Other 15 19%
Unknown 27 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 July 2015.
All research outputs
#13,259,840
of 23,881,329 outputs
Outputs from BMC Psychology
#509
of 866 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#114,833
of 264,789 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Psychology
#6
of 9 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,881,329 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 866 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.2. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 264,789 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 56% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 9 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 3 of them.