Ecological and Embodied Assessment of Inhibitory Control Using a VR Stroop Task in Cognitively Healthy Older Adults:...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Executive functions, including inhibitory control, decline with age.
• Traditional cognitive tests may lack ecological validity.
• Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive environments for cognitive assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of a novel virtual reality-based Stroop test (VRST).
• To assess inhibitory control using both cognitive and kinematic measures.
• To explore VRST's potential as an ecologically grounded assessment tool.

Main Methods:

• 224 healthy older adults completed the VRST and a traditional Stroop test.
• VRST involved a virtual clothing-sorting task with incongruent color cues.
• Measures included task completion time, error count, 3D movement distance, and hesitation latency.
• Concurrent validity assessed via Pearson correlations; test-retest reliability via ICCs.

Main Results:

• VRST metrics (completion time, movement distance, hesitation latency) correlated significantly with traditional Stroop completion time (r > 0.78, p < 0.001), indicating good concurrent validity.
• High test-retest reliability (ICC > 0.9) was found for completion time, movement distance, and hesitation latency.
• Error count did not show significant correlations or reliable test-retest scores.

Conclusions:

• The VRST is a valid and reliable measure of inhibitory control in healthy older adults.
• VRST's kinematic data provides ecologically grounded behavioral indicators of executive function.
• VRST extends cognitive assessment beyond traditional methods, showing potential for tracking changes in healthy aging.