University of Twente Student Theses
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The Effect of Cognitive Load and Immersion in an Immersive Virtual Environment, on Vocabulary acquisition.
Slots, Finn (2025) The Effect of Cognitive Load and Immersion in an Immersive Virtual Environment, on Vocabulary acquisition.
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| Abstract: | Acquiring new vocabulary can be one of the most time-consuming and tedious aspects of learning a new language. Literature suggests that performing intuitive gestures and learning in an immersive virtual reality (IVR) environment is beneficial for vocabulary acquisition. In this study, I create an IVR environment where Japanese words can be learned in an engaging way by exploring the world and selecting target objects. 19 students of the University of Twente learned 54 Japanese words divided over three learning conditions: 1) an immersive world, where the participant performs intuitive gestures, 2) an immersive world, where only the target word is shown, and 3) an empty world, where the participant performs gestures as well. The study focuses on how these conditions affect immersion and cognitive load during learning, and how they influence short-term and long-term learning outcomes. The participants were tested on their recall memory of the words after each learning condition, and again after one week on all of the words. The results suggest that learning in a contextual world increases the immersion felt, but the performance of gestures does not significantly impact the immersion. There is no significant difference in the cognitive load experienced across all conditions. It appears that the increase in immersion due to the contextual world, with the seemingly limited effects of the cognitive load, affects both short-term acquisition as well as long-term word retention. The performance of gestures shows no significant difference compared to where no gestures are performed. This shows that an immersive environment aids language learning, which is promising for the potential application of IVR for language learning in classrooms. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | TNW: Science and Technology |
| Programme: | Advanced Technology BSc (50002) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107166 |
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