Design Recommendations to Enhance Virtual Reality Presence for Older Adults

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 2077-2081
Author(s):  
Sean A. McGlynn ◽  
Wendy A. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
General Population ◽  
Design Recommendations ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Older Users ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Intended Effect ◽  
Design And Application

Virtual reality (VR) systems are becoming increasingly affordable for the general population. These technologies have potentially beneficial applications in a wide variety of contexts. Primary considerations for enhancing VR experiences in these contexts are the level of immersion enabled by the technology and the level of presence experienced by the user. Older adults are often overlooked during the design and application of VR technologies, even though these types of systems may help overcome certain aspects of the age-related challenges and limitations that they experience. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the applications of VR for older adults and to identify characteristics of older users that could impact the way they experience these advanced technologies. This review culminates in design recommendations for increasing the likelihood that the immersiveness of the VR system has its intended effect on the experience of virtual presence for older adults.

Immersive Virtual Reality for Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Vero Vanden Abeele ◽  
Brenda Schraepen ◽  
Hanne Huygelier ◽  
Celine Gillebert ◽  
Kathrin Gerling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Older Persons ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Design Recommendations ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Positive Experiences

Despite the proliferation of research on immersive virtual reality (IVR) technologies for older adults, comprehensive guidelines on designing immersive and engaging VR for older adults remain sparse. Therefore, we first compounded 67 guidelines based on published literature. Next, to empirically ground these design recommendations, we provided 37 older adults of diverse ages, education levels, and cognitive abilities with a first VR experience. Analyzing interviews with the 37 older adults via the Laddering method, we found that they generally reported positive experiences with their first VR exposure. With these deepened insights, we reflect on, nuance, and contextualize existing design guidelines, and formulate points to bear in mind when designing accessible and engaging VR experiences for older persons.

A comparison of immersive virtual reality with traditional neuropsychological measures in the assessment of executive functions

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Melissa Clare Davison ◽  
Catherine Deeprose ◽  
Sylvia Terbeck
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real World ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Neuropsychological Measures ◽  
Seating Arrangement ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Initial Work ◽  
Neuropsychological Tasks

ObjectiveThis study investigated immersive virtual reality (IVR), as a novel technique to test executive function of healthy younger and older adults. We predicted IVR tasks to have greater predictive power than traditional measures when assessing age-related cognitive functioning due to the real-world validity of the tasks.MethodsParticipants (n=40) completed the Stroop colour–word test and the trail-making test (TMT) as traditional and commonly used assessments of executive functioning. Participants then completed three IVR tasks; a seating arrangement task, an item location task (both set in a virtual chemistry lab), and a virtual parking simulator.ResultsYounger adults completed significantly more parking simulator levels (p<0.001), placed significantly more objects (p<0.001), and located significantly more items than older adults (p<0.01), demonstrating higher levels of performance. Significant correlations were found between performance on traditional neuropsychological measures and IVR measures. For example, Stroop CW performance significantly correlated with the number of parking simulator levels completed (τ=0.43, p<0.01). This suggests that IVR measures assess the same underlying cognitive constructs as traditional tasks. In addition, IVR measures contributed a significant percentage of the explained variance in age.ConclusionIVR measures (i.e. number of parking simulator levels completed and number of objects placed in the seating arrangement task) were found to be stronger contributors than existing traditional neuropsychological tasks in predicting age-related cognitive decline. Future research should investigate the implementation of these real-world-based tasks in clinical groups given this promising initial work.

scholarly journals A-028 Utilizing Virtual Reality to Assess the Relationship between Prospective Memory and Processing Speed

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 818-818
Author(s):  
Sawyer J ◽  
Barnett M ◽  
Bennett L ◽  
Donnell R ◽  
Flair A ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Adult Intelligence Scale ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Memory Measure ◽  
Event Based

Abstract Objective Processing speed may partially mediate age-related differences in prospective memory (PM) abilities (West & Craik, 2001). The present preliminary study aimed to further investigate the relationships between prospective memory and processing speed by utilizing a novel virtual reality-based prospective memory measure. The task was designed to assess the impacts of a virtual environment would facilitate a deeper level of processing and enhance prospective memory performance. Method 49 older adults (M = 73.87, SD = 8.24) and 39 younger adults(M = 18.87, SD =1.61) completed the Coding subtest of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS- IV) as well as a virtual-reality prospective memory measure that utilized both time-based and event-based cues. Results Coding was strongly correlated with PM time-based cues (r = .43, p &#60; .01) and event-based cues (r = .53, p &lt; .001). There were no correlations between processing speed and prospective memory in the young adult sample. Conclusion This study suggests that processing speed is strongly related to virtual-reality based PM and suggests that processing speed is a crucial component in prospective memory outcomes in older adults. This novel task virtual reality task may provide construct validity against other prospective memory measures.

Our Fitbits, our (ageing) selves: wearables, self-tracking and ageing embodiment

2018 ◽  
pp. 196-214
Author(s):  
Barbara L. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Behavior Modification ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Older Users ◽  
Tracking Devices

This chapter considers the ways that embodied aging may be produced through wearable self-tracking technologies. With physical activity now promoted as key to the prevention of many age-related problems, and as inactivity becomes framed as irresponsible, the market for devices to both measure and motivate activity has expanded. While research in the biomedical and exercise sciences focuses on how self-tracking devices can enhance interventions aimed at behavior modification with older adults, this chapter draw on interviews with older users to argue that we need to attend more carefully to how the data produced by self-tracking circulates through the networks of technologies, relationships and regimes of expertise that are embedded in everyday social worlds.

scholarly journals Using virtual reality in medical education to teach empathy

2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Dyer ◽  
Barbara J. Swartzlander ◽  
Marilyn R. Gugliucci
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
Nursing Curricula ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Aging Services ◽  
Immersion Training ◽  
Teaching Modality

Objective: The project adopted technology that teaches medical and other health professions students to be empathic with older adults, through virtual reality (VR) software that allows them to simulate being a patient with age-related diseases, and to familiarize medical students with information resources related to the health of older adults.Methods: The project uses an application that creates immersive VR experiences for training of the workforce for aging services. Users experience age-related conditions such as macular degeneration and high-frequency hearing loss from the patient’s perspective. Librarians and faculty partner to integrate the experience into the curriculum, and students go to the library at their convenience to do the VR assignment.Results: The project successfully introduced an innovative new teaching modality to the medical, physician assistant, physical therapy, and nursing curricula. Results show that VR enhanced students’ understanding of age-related health problems and increased their empathy for older adults with vision and hearing loss or Alzheimer’s disease.Conclusion: VR immersion training is an effective teaching method to help medical and health professions students develop empathy and is a budding area for library partnerships. As the technology becomes more affordable and accessible, it is important to develop best practices for using VR in the library.

scholarly journals A Pilot Study Exploring Age Differences in Presence, Workload, and Cybersickness in the Experience of Immersive Virtual Reality Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Dilanchian ◽  
Ronald Andringa ◽  
Walter R. Boot
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Age Related

Research is often focused on understanding barriers to the use and adoption of technology to support older adults’ (65+) instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), such as communication, banking, and transportation. Less attention is paid to technology to support enhanced activities of daily living (EADLs), activities that enrich our daily lives, even though they have the potential to improve wellbeing, promote physical and emotional health, and reduce stress. Here, we explored how older adults interacted with commercial virtual reality (VR) to investigate the feasibility of using VR as an EADL support system. Older adults navigated different VR environments, including environments that were meditation, exploration, and game-oriented. Of particular interest was whether older adults (N = 20) psychologically experienced differing degrees of presence within virtual environments compared to younger adults (N = 20), and potential barriers to use as assessed by measures of workload and system usability. Given previously observed age-related differences in cybersickness, this was also assessed as a potential barrier. Compared to younger adults, older adults expressed a greater sense of presence in virtual environments, with nonsignificant differences in perceived workload and usability according to most measures. Contrary to expectations, older adults reported significantly less cybersickness compared to younger adults. Results suggest that VR is a promising means to support older adults’ EADLs.

scholarly journals ASSESSMENT OF AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY USING THE VIRTUAL REALITY FUNCTIONAL CAPACITY ASSESSMENT TOOL (VRFCAT)

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
A.S. Atkins ◽  
I. Stroescu ◽  
N.B. Spagnola ◽  
V.G. Davis ◽  
T.D. Patterson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Functional Capacity ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Capacity Assessment ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Preclinical Ad ◽  
Performance Based Assessment ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Clinical trials for primary prevention and early intervention in preclinical AD require measures of functional capacity with improved sensitivity to deficits in healthier, non-demented individuals. To this end, the Virtual Reality Functional Capacity Assessment Tool (VRFCAT) was developed as a direct performance-based assessment of functional capacity that is sensitive to changes in function across multiple populations. Using a realistic virtual reality environment, the VRFCAT assesses a subject’s ability to complete instrumental activities associated with a shopping trip. The present investigation represents an initial evaluation of the VRFCAT as a potential co-primary measure of functional capacity in healthy aging and preclinical MCI/AD by examining test-retest reliability and associations with cognitive performance in healthy young and older adults. The VRFCAT was compared and contrasted with the UPSA-2-VIM, a traditional performance-based assessment utilizing physical props. Results demonstrated strong age-related differences in performance on each VRFCAT outcome measure, including total completion time, total errors, and total forced progressions. VRFCAT performance showed strong correlations with cognitive performance across both age groups. VRFCAT Total Time demonstrated good test-retest reliability (ICC=.80 in young adults; ICC=.64 in older adults) and insignificant practice effects, indicating the measure is suitable for repeated testing in healthy populations. Taken together, these results provide preliminary support for the VRFCAT as a potential measure of functionally relevant change in primary prevention and preclinical AD/MCI trials.

scholarly journals Age-related Impairment of Navigation and Strategy in Virtual Reality Star Maze

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
Haiyan Hou ◽  
Chunlin Yue ◽  
Liang Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Spatial Ability ◽  
Maze Task ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Navigation Strategy ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Navigation Accuracy ◽  
Learning Trials

Abstract BackgroundAlthough it is well known that aging impairs navigation performance, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. Previous study suggested that the egocentric strategy was relatively unimpaired during aging. In this study, we aimed to examine strategy use and the underlying cognitive supporting mechanisms in older adults with the virtual reality star maze.MethodsThirty young adults and thirty-one older adults participated in the study. During the learning trials, participants were required to reach a fixed destination in a virtual reality star maze task. In an additional probe trial, the distal landmarks around the maze were removed, and the strategy using was classified into egocentric and non-egocentric according to whether participants could reach the destination directly.ResultsThe results revealed that older adults adopting egocentric strategy completed the navigation task as accurate as young adults, whereas older adults using non-egocentric strategy were selectively impaired. The relatively well-maintained egocentric strategy in older adults was related to better visuo-spatial ability.ConclusionsVisuo-spatial ability might play an important role in navigation accuracy and navigation strategy of older adults. This study demonstrated the potential value of the virtual reality star maze in evaluating navigation strategy and visuo-spatial ability in older adults.

scholarly journals Age-related differences in gait adaptations during overground walking with and without visual perturbations using a virtual reality headset

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muyinat Y. Osaba ◽  
Dario Martelli ◽  
Antonio Prado ◽  
Sunil K. Agrawal ◽  
Anil K. Lalwani
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Overground Walking ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Gait Parameters ◽  
Young Subjects

Abstract Older adults have difficulty adapting to new visual information, posing a challenge to maintain balance during walking. Virtual reality can be used to study gait adaptability in response to discordant sensorimotor stimulations. This study aimed to investigate age-related modifications and propensity for visuomotor adaptations due to continuous visual perturbations during overground walking in a virtual reality headset. Twenty old and twelve young subjects walked on an instrumented walkway in real and virtual environments while reacting to antero-posterior and medio-lateral oscillations of the visual field. Mean and variability of spatiotemporal gait parameters were calculated during the first and fifth minutes of walking. A 3-way mixed-design ANOVA was performed to determine the main and interaction effects of group, condition and time. Both groups modified gait similarly, but older adults walked with shorter and slower strides and did not reduce stride velocity or increase stride width variability during medio-lateral perturbations. This may be related to a more conservative and anticipatory strategy as well as a reduced perception of the optic flow. Over time, participants adapted similarly to the perturbations but only younger participants reduced their stride velocity variability. Results provide novel evidence of age- and context-dependent visuomotor adaptations in response to visual perturbations during overground walking and may help to establish new methods for early identification and remediation of gait deficits.

Age-Related Differences in Processing Dynamic Information to Identify Vowel Quality

1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 892-902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Allen Fox ◽  
Lida G. Wall ◽  
Jeanne Gokcen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Vowel Quality ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Dynamic Information ◽  
Process Dynamic ◽  
Center Condition ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Control Version ◽  
Older Subjects ◽  
Whole Word

This study examined age-related differences in the use of dynamic acoustic information (in the form of formant transitions) to identify vowel quality in CVCs. Two versions of 61 naturally produced, commonly occurring, monosyllabic English words were created: a control version (the unmodified whole word) and a silent-center version (in which approximately 62% of the medial vowel was replaced by silence). A group of normal-hearing young adults (19–25 years old) and older adults (61–75 years old) identified these tokens. The older subjects were found to be significantly worse than the younger subjects at identifying the medial vowel and the initial and final consonants in the silent-center condition. These results support the hypothesis of an age-related decrement in the ability to process dynamic perceptual cues in the perception of vowel quality.

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