The Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality on Discourse Production in Younger and Older Adults

Discourse production tasks are widely used to assess language across clinical and research contexts. Virtual reality (VR) offers an alternative discourse elicitation modality by providing immersive 3-D environments that may influence language production differently from traditional picture-based tasks. This study examined whether immersive VR affects discourse production compared with traditional picture description tasks as well as how younger and older adults perceive the usability and acceptability of and relative preference for each modality.

Forty-five younger and 33 older neurotypical adults described two widely studied images (Cookie Theft and Cat Rescue), presented either as colored 2-D images or as immersive 3-D VR environments. Participants completed both modalities in a counterbalanced order and completed a posttask VR usability survey. Discourse samples were analyzed for total utterances, total words, mean length of utterance (MLU), proportion of open- and closed-class words, moving-average type-token ratio (MATTR), and embedded clauses.

Significant main effects of group and modality emerged for total utterances and total words, such that older adults produced more language overall and participants produced more language in VR than in the 2-D condition. A significant interaction between group and modality emerged for MLU, such that modality effects were observed only in older adults. Older adults also produced relatively more open-class and fewer closed-class words in VR, whereas younger adults showed no modality effects. Embedded clause production and MATTR did not vary by group or modality. Survey responses indicated positive engagement in both groups, although older adults reported greater difficulty with VR.

VR increases language production across age groups but differentially affects aspects of language production in older adults. These findings highlight both the potential and the practical constraints of using immersive VR for language assessment and discourse elicitation.

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.33345684.