Η επίδραση της στερεοσκοπίας σε εκπαιδευτικά εικονικά περιβάλλοντα

Abstract

Studies show that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) positively affect learning process. Virtual reality is considered to be a powerful ICT tool that results in positive learning outcomes. Stereoscopy is one of the main characteristics of virtual reality. Stereoscopic viewing seems to be important for visually guided reaching tasks. The sense of stereoscopy has been shown to improve performance for tasks in three dimensional (3D) environments. As far as it concerns Educational Virtual Environments (EVEs), stereoscopy and 3D perception seem to contribute to conceptual learning and positive learning outcomes. The present PhD thesis studies topics that combine the fields of virtual reality, education, and brain function. It also introduces the new term “educational neuroscience”, according to which learning is defined as “the process of generating neural interfaces in response to external stimuli”. The research approach brings out brain activity such as cognitive processes during the interaction of participants in virtual (stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic) environments, aiming at the estimation of stereoscopy in these environments. The present thesis proposes the use of digital electroencephalography (EEG) as a high temporal resolution technique for the comparative study of the effects of stereoscopy in three different environments, namely a real, a two dimensional (2D) and a stereoscopic three dimensional (3D) with exactly the same content. The research axis of the present thesis is the comparative study of electric brain activity of young women, 19 to 22 years old, during their observation of certain objects in the above three environments. The EEG signals reflect a range of frequency bands that are associated with various functional brain states. EEG signals were studied for the following rhythms (delta 5 – 3.5 Hz, theta 4 – 7Hz, lower alpha-1 8 – 10Hz, upper a-2 11 – 12Hz, beta 13 – 32Hz and gamma 33 – 48Hz). The results of the thesis show that the topology of brain activity is the same for the three environments under study. This is rather expectable, since all three environments were of the same content. The results show that electric brain activity is similar in real and stereoscopic virtual environments and different than in non-stereoscopic 2D virtual environments. The real environment caused less mental effort than the other two virtual environments. Comparing the 3D stereoscopic to the 2D virtual environment, the stereoscopic environment caused less mental effort, possibly because of the existence of stereoscopy. Moreover, the 2D environment caused an increase of anxiety, probably because the participants were looking for the third dimension in it. The present thesis is a first step in the field of educational neuroscience, emphasizing the importance of stereoscopic virtual environments over non-stereoscopic ones for educational use. It also contributes to the study of cognitive processes that occur during user interaction with digital environments with educational content, aiming at the design of environments that result in positive learning outcomes.