Effects of virtual reality working memory task difficulty on the passive processing of irrelevant auditory stimuli

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) environments are known for their high immersiveness.
• This immersiveness may lead to reduced awareness of external, real-world stimuli.
• Understanding cognitive resource allocation in VR is crucial for designing effective experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the extent to which participants process task-irrelevant auditory stimuli during visual working memory (WM) tasks in a VR environment.
• To examine the impact of WM task difficulty on the processing of external auditory stimuli.
• To assess the feasibility of using event-related potentials (ERPs) to quantify the processing of extraneous stimuli in VR.

Main Methods:

• Sixteen young adults performed easy (nameable objects) and difficult (abstract objects) visual WM tasks in a 3D head-mounted VR device.
• Task-irrelevant auditory stimuli were presented at slow (12s) or fast (1.5s) intervals.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs), specifically N1 and P2/P3a components, were recorded to measure auditory processing.

Main Results:

• Working memory task performance was significantly lower for the difficult task compared to the easy task.
• Auditory ERPs (N1, P2/P3a) were larger when stimuli were presented more slowly.
• Despite task difficulty variations, ERPs were not significantly affected by task load. However, smaller N1 and P2/P3a amplitudes correlated with higher accuracy in the easy WM task.

Conclusions:

• The immersive nature of VR tasks, even those considered easy, may consume significant cognitive resources.
• This high resource allocation can limit the processing of concurrent, task-irrelevant external stimuli.
• VR's immersive quality potentially reduces awareness and processing of the external environment, irrespective of task difficulty.