Children's Transfer of Spatial Learning from Virtual Reality to Real Environments

Spatial abilities in children have been shown to be related to activity in the environment, particularly to walking and other forms of active locomotion. The objective of this study is to investigate whether virtual reality (VR) can assist children in transferring spatial learning to a real environment. Children (six and seven-yr-old participants) were asked to find ten objects hidden around a room and to try not to visit the same location more than once. Examination of the percentage of correct choices and the visit of first error showed improvement as a result of training. There were initial differences between children trained on the computer compared to those trained in the real environment. However, after three practice trials, children with the VR training were comparable to children trained in the real space. The implications for utilizing a VR environment for enhancing spatial abilities for children with mobility difficulties is discussed.