Virtual training, real effects: a narrative review on sports performance enhancement through interventions in virtual reality

B. Sokołowska

25 Februari 2023

Innovative technologies of the 21st century have an extremely significant impact on all activities of modern humans. Among them, virtual reality (VR) offers great opportunities for scientific research and public health. The results of research to date both demonstrate the beneficial effects of using virtual worlds, and indicate undesirable effects on bodily functions. This review presents interesting recent findings related to training/exercise in virtual environments and its impact on cognitive and motor functions. It also highlights the importance of VR as an effective tool for assessing and diagnosing these functions both in research and modern medical practice. The findings point to the enormous future potential of these rapidly developing innovative technologies. Of particular importance are applications of virtual reality in basic and clinical neuroscience.

A. Y. Kapi N. N. Nor M. S. Sunar

24 Februari 2020

PURPOSE: To identify the main findings from research on gamified virtual reality in sport METHODS: The digital databases for this review were searched and visited on 19 May 2019. Gamification AND (“virtual reality” OR sports fitness) were used as a search string or keyword in the paper selection. RESULTS: Thirty -three papers were found after the preliminary searches to narrow down the selections that align with the goals of this study. The selected papers were examined to investigate the characteristics of gamification in a broad context of sports. These findings suggest that the use of gamification methods help physical exercise in the immersive VR setting. CONCLUSION: Through the outcomes of user experience, it can prove that gamification components are boosting the pleasure of the user throughout the physical activity and provide a set of rules to encourage the athlete or user to perform better. Besides, generality of impacts with VR and gamification in sports has been discussed in this paper by listing the advantages and limitations. However, findings need more varied populations, particularly elements, athletes, kids, and older people.

Ayah Hamad Bochen Jia

1 September 2022

Despite virtual reality (VR) being initially marketed toward gaming, there are many potential and existing VR applications in various sectors and fields, including education, training, simulations, and even in exercise and healthcare. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of general understanding of the strengths and limitations of VR as a technology in various application domains. Therefore, the aim of this literature review is to contribute to the library of literature concerning VR technology, its applications in everyday use, and some of its existing drawbacks. Key VR applications were discussed in terms of how they are currently utilized or can be utilized in the future, spanning fields such as medicine, engineering, education, and entertainment. The main benefits of VR are expressed through the text, followed by a discussion of some of the main limitations of current VR technologies and how they can be mitigated or improved. Overall, this literature review shows how virtual reality technology has the potential to be a greatly beneficial tool in a multitude of applications and a wide variety of fields. VR as a technology is still in its early stages, but more people are becoming interested in it and are optimistic about seeing what kind of changes VR can make in their everyday lives. With how rapidly modern society has adapted to personal computers and smartphones, VR has the opportunity to become the next big technological turning point that will eventually become commonplace in most households.

Ben Horan Hans Stefan Michael Mortimer

19 Agustus 2023

The commercial release of affordable, low-cost, and consumer-ready virtual reality (VR) devices has increased the accessibility for researchers to investigate the benefits of VR technology including those aimed at education and training. VR technology provides several opportunities that may provide benefits over traditional training methods, this is particularly relevant for safety training due to its ability to safely simulate dangerous scenarios that would otherwise be difficult to access. When implementing a new technology, it is important to evaluate and validate its effectiveness. This paper presents a systematic review of VR safety-relevant training studies that perform an evaluation of their effectiveness. This comprehensive review includes 136 studies published between 2016 and August 2021. Results presented in this paper include application domains, study objectives, study designs, and evaluation measures. Results show that the majority of studies were applicable to health services with the majority focusing on effectiveness evaluation using true- or quasi-experimental design. This study then categorizes each reported evaluation measure into one of the four levels in Kirkpatrick’s model for training evaluation, results showed that the majority of studies evaluated learning (72.06%) and reaction (66.18%) levels with very few studies evaluating behavior and results levels. This study concludes by providing insights and recommendations to help future researchers make informed decisions when designing an effectiveness evaluation study for VR safety-relevant training applications.

S. Collina Panagiotis Kourtesis Sarah E. MacPherson + 1 lainnya

10 Agustus 2020

Abstract Objective: The assessment of cognitive functions such as prospective memory, episodic memory, attention, and executive functions benefits from an ecologically valid approach to better understand how performance outcomes generalize to everyday life. Immersive virtual reality (VR) is considered capable of simulating real-life situations to enhance ecological validity. The present study attempted to validate the Virtual Reality Everyday Assessment Lab (VR-EAL), an immersive VR neuropsychological battery, against an extensive paper-and-pencil neuropsychological battery. Methods: Forty-one participants (21 females) were recruited: 18 gamers and 23 non-gamers who attended both an immersive VR and a paper-and-pencil testing session. Bayesian Pearson’s correlation analyses were conducted to assess construct and convergent validity of the VR-EAL. Bayesian t-tests were performed to compare VR and paper-and-pencil testing in terms of administration time, similarity to real-life tasks (i.e., ecological validity), and pleasantness. Results: VR-EAL scores were significantly correlated with their equivalent scores on the paper-and-pencil tests. The participants’ reports indicated that the VR-EAL tasks were significantly more ecologically valid and pleasant than the paper-and-pencil neuropsychological battery. The VR-EAL battery also had a shorter administration time. Conclusion: The VR-EAL appears as an effective neuropsychological tool for the assessment of everyday cognitive functions, which has enhanced ecological validity, a highly pleasant testing experience, and does not induce cybersickness.