Virtual reality: an aid as cognitive learning environment—a case study of Hindi language

Abstract

The objective of this research is to propose a dynamic composition of behaviour-rich interactive 3D scene as a virtual environment for cognitive support using visual and linguistic analytics. Based on the constructivist theory of learning through visual cognition by Winn (A conceptual basis for educational applications of virtual reality, Technical report TR 93-9, Washington Technology University, 1993), we propose our work with a grounding that visual data are easy to comprehend for a person having linguistic learning difficulties. Virtual reality provides an environment for learners to actively pursue their knowledge needs by applying their theories in the ‘real world’. Therefore, we focus our work on generating an interactive virtual environment. It decreases cognitive load for the person with difficulties in comprehension, especially in language reading, e.g. dyslexia. Our prior work related to the proposed research is named as Preksha—an automatic Hindi text visualizer. To the best of the knowledge of the authors, Preksha is the only known visualization work for an Indian Language, viz. Hindi. Belonging to morphologically-rich and free-word order Indian languages, this work on the Hindi Language is a novel interdisciplinary approach to develop a virtual environment for cognitive support. Application of an automatic text visualization with a suitable learning paradigm in a virtual environment is another novelty of this research.