An evaluation of the feasibility of utilizing Virtual Reality as a tool to assess cognitive function

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is currently being studied to determine its’ possible uses within healthcare, for example to assess cognitive impairment. This project investigates the feasibility of utilizing VR to assess cognitive function in a clinical setting. The report begins with a literature study investigating various aspects of VR and cognitive impairment, with a certain focus on dementia where VR could be particularly useful, as well as examples of VR being applied in this field. Furthermore, aspects pertaining to usability and user experience of these types of VR systems are discussed, and how VR assessment tasks could compare to more traditional methods in terms of efficiency, adaptability, and user comfort. The results of the literature study are summarized into identified problems and advantages, attempting to provide a holistic perspective of aspects that need to be considered when attempting to draw conclusions regarding the feasibility of utilizing VR to assess cognitive function. Furthermore, the literature study, along with stakeholder interviews, served to inform the design of a low fidelity VR prototype. The prototype was designed in order to explore the various possibilities of designing a VR task for cognitive assessment. The prototype, which was based around a grocery store task combining memorization and navigation, was evaluated in order to identify possible issues that need to be considered when designing this type of assessment task.