Journal of Psychology & Behavioral Science

The Use of Virtual Reality as Interactive Media to Support Web-based Navigation Performance for the Older Adult
Dyi-Yih Michael Lin, Yu-Fei Hsu

Abstract
The feature of virtual reality in displaying three-dimensional digital contents may present particular benefits for the older adult in web-based navigation as spatial cognition has been shown declined with age. Sixteen subjects were recruited in an experiment where age (older vs. young) and web interface (two-dimensional vs. virtual reality) were manipulated as a between-subject and a repeated measure factor respectively. Performances were evaluated in terms of recall accuracy and the number of navigation errors when browsing the web contents. The results indicated the main effects of age and interface were both significant, and so was the interaction. For recall accuracy, the older subject achieved a performance level comparable to that for the young counterpart but only when the virtual reality interface was employed. For navigation error, the virtual reality interface assisted the older subject significantly so that the browsing orientation with this Euclidean space presentation even outperformed the orientation with two-dimensional web pages. Implications for designing web-based media that accommodate age considerations were discussed in details.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jpbs.v4n2a14