Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 25, 2026
Virtual Reality Tools for Assessing Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Novel Opportunity for Data Collection
Published on: March 10, 2021
Virtual reality measures in neuropsychological assessment: a meta-analytic review
Alexandra Neguț1, Silviu-Andrei Matu2, Florin Alin Sava3
1a Evidence-Based Assessment and Psychological Interventions Doctoral School, The International Institute for the Advanced Studies of Psychotherapy and Applied Mental Health , Babeș-Bolyai University , Cluj-Napoca , Romania.
Objective:
Virtual reality-based assessment is a new paradigm for neuropsychological evaluation, that might provide an ecological assessment, compared to paper-and-pencil or computerized neuropsychological assessment. Previous research has focused on the use of virtual reality in neuropsychological assessment, but no meta-analysis focused on the sensitivity of virtual reality-based measures of cognitive processes in measuring cognitive processes in various populations.
Method:
We found eighteen studies that compared the cognitive performance between clinical and healthy controls on virtual reality measures.
Results:
Based on a random effects model, the results indicated a large effect size in favor of healthy controls (g = .95). For executive functions, memory and visuospatial analysis, subgroup analysis revealed moderate to large effect sizes, with superior performance in the case of healthy controls. Participants' mean age, type of clinical condition, type of exploration within virtual reality environments, and the presence of distractors were significant moderators.
Conclusions:
Our findings support the sensitivity of virtual reality-based measures in detecting cognitive impairment. They highlight the possibility of using virtual reality measures for neuropsychological assessment in research applications, as well as in clinical practice.
