“Abstract Virtual Environments for Assessing Cognitive Abilities” by Severson and Rizzo
Conference:
Type(s):
Title:
- Abstract Virtual Environments for Assessing Cognitive Abilities
Session/Category Title: Applications
Presenter(s)/Author(s):
Abstract:
We describe the design and pilot testing of abstract virtual environments (VE) for evaluating decision-making in neurologically impaired subjects. Instead of striving for visual realism, the VEs provide abstract representations of the necessary visual cues in a single screen setting. Pilot testing using this design strategy was conducted in 50 subjects: 28 had neurological impairments causing impaired decision-making (26 with focal brain lesions, 2 with Alzheimer’s disease) and 22 were neurologically normal. Preliminary results are promising, suggesting that abstract VEs can distinguish decision-making impaired people where traditional neurological test batteries may not [1].
References:
Bechara et al. Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science;275:1293–1295, 1997.
Cutting JE. How the eye measures reality and virtual reality. Behavior Research Methods, Instrumentation, and Computers; 29:29–36, 1997.
Wanger LR et al. Perceiving spatial relationships in computergenerated images. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications;12:44–58, 1992.