A Framework for Assessing Embodied Cognition in Virtual-verse

Abstract

As society is getting older and living longer, an advanced neuropsychological assessment method which can better detect early signs of neurodegenerative disease is urgently needed. Though the conventional neuropsychological tests have solely focused on our disembodied cognitive function, recent embodied cognitive science is revolutionizing the way we detect neurodegenerative disease by incorporating the influence of our sensory and motor capacities. Empirical studies demonstrated that embodied cognitive science could provide additional explanatory power to detect and predict the onset of neurodegenerative disease. Emerging virtual reality technology offers opportunities to assess these embodied relationships among perception, cognition, and action in situations as close as possible to real-world. However, only very few researchers have approached the discipline with the intent of building a cohesive understanding of embodied cognition and its virtual reality-based assessment method. In this thesis, we aim to present a new theoretical framework for assessing embodied cognition in virtual-verse. After reviewing the literature, three distinct measures of embodied cognition (i.e., multi-sensory integration, movement, and perceptual scaling) were defined. After that, virtual reality tests were designed and developed to assess these measures in virtual environments. Three empirical experiments and studies were conducted to demonstrate the validity and sensitivity of the virtual reality tests and their measures of embodied cognition as early screening markers for neurodegenerative disease. Findings suggest that our developed virtual reality tests and their three distinct measures of embodied cognition showed good validity with the conventional neuropsychological tests. Moreover, inclusion of virtual reality tests (i.e., embodied cognitive science) into an early screening paradigm significantly increased diagnostic validity and discriminative power compared to the conventional test results. Overall, this thesis opens new research avenues for future predictive and preventive assessment paradigm in healthcare and medicine.