Learning to Reason about Rotational Motions in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) technology was used to examine learning for reasoning about object rotation. A desktop VR system displayed satellite dishes attached to shafts. For each trial, one of four types of rotation was possible: dish aligned to vertical shaft, dish oblique to vertical shaft, dish aligned to oblique shaft, and dish oblique to oblique shaft. Certain of these rotational motions are very difficult for most people to reason about accurately. Participants' task was to predict the outcomes of rotations by orienting an arrow in the direction the dish would face if it rotated as indicated. Feedback and opportunities to control and observe the rotations in VR were provided. Results showed a gradual but substantial improvement in predicting the outcomes of the initially more difficult rotations. That is, participants were able to master very difficult spatial reasoning using VR technology. This may have implications for the many human-system interfaces that train people to develop complex skills.