A study on the verification of the effect of sensory extension through cutaneous sensation on experiential learning using VR

Abstract

This study verifies the effects of learning experiences by measuring the degrees of awareness of direct experience felt by users detecting both temperature and wind occurring within a virtual space as real cutaneous sensations. Learning while using virtual reality (VR)—with a focus on audiovisual vividness, tactile interactivity, and locomotive interactivity—was thus compared to VR utilization learning with the aforementioned wind and temperature sensations. The results show a much higher level of vividness and presence for those that experienced VR learning with cutaneous sensations. This confirms that a user feels an experience more vividly, and therefore as being closer to real life, when his or her senses are engaged, particularly through the use of skin sensations. Furthermore, when asked to describe their experiences, most of the group studied (95.8%) selected the “Exploratory Stage” (allowing users to believe they can feel, touch, and manipulate objects) and the “Spectator Stage” (looking at an object as if it were there). The results demonstrate a difference from previous VR learning that provides no cutaneous sensations and concludes that experiential learning can therefore be enhanced.