Impact of Spatial Environment Design on Cognitive Load

This paper conducted a preliminary study to investigate the impact of the environment style on the cognitive load demanded task in virtual reality. Participants experienced recall tests and spatial reasoning tests in the four different types of virtual classroom environments. A within-subject design was used with four conditions, task within a generic classroom, music room, science lab, and outdoor classroom. We found significant differences in the spatial environment design on the Spatial Reasoning with trivial effect sizes. The results indicate that we showed minimal evidence to support that spatial environment design could impact cognitive load in VR.