Adaptive Training of the Mental Rotation Ability in an Immersive Virtual Environment

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) opens new possibilities for the investigation and train-ing of Mental Rotational Ability (MRA), which is an important factor in the development of technical skills in several fields. Adaptive designs of MRA training environments realised by virtual technology could offer promising potentials and is investigated in this study. For the evaluation of effective-ness, the adaptive training environment is compared with the adequate ran-domised environment by assessing mental rotation ability in both conditions before and after training. As a dependent variable, the performance and its improvement in the virtual mental rotation test (VMRT), as well as the cog-nitive load, is measured. In addition, possible gender differences and their in-fluence on the training outcomes are determined. The study described here represents an innovative support option for MRA and provides an expandable empirical basis for VR-based adaptive trainings.