Leveraging Cognitive Abilities in Virtual Realities

Virtual realities have revolutionized information presentation by allowing to organize the information spatially. They provide a unique capability to display a greater amount of information within the field of view, resembling real three-dimensional environments rather than limited 2D interfaces. Moreover, it is crucial to effectively highlight and focus on important content in digital environments. Notably, extracting an image from its original context to emphasize it has a significantly more significant impact in 3D virtual environments compared to 2D environments. Additionally, individuals with expertise in navigating 3D spaces experience an enhanced sense of presence as they effortlessly navigate in simulated worlds, devoid of any cognitive burden. This heightened sense of presence can contribute to further performance enhancement.

I. Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) is an evolving field, that closely relates to the scope of Cognitive InfoCommunications [1]–[6]. It can be considered to be a cognitive tool, as one of its major aims is to enable people to deal with information more easily [7]. By providing a spatial context to digital contents, VR can radically improve the organization of information. Further-more, 3D visualization allows people to use their evolutionary cognitive abilities to perform digital tasks, as their abilities have evolved to adapt to the real world which is a 3D environment. Several previous studies have compared 2D and 3D collaborative methods and showed that more information can be shared and applied at a lower cognitive cost by using three-dimensional representations [8]–[12]. This paper presents a novel exploration into the role of human cognitive abilities within desktop virtual reality, bridging the domains of computer science and cognitive psychology to investigate the unique interplay between individual cognitive characteristics and virtual reality user experiences.