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Psyc Article Review

With growing technology we advance everyday in our learning techniques. There have been many people throughout history that have tried different methods and tools to help us learn. We have used animal experimentation and even had experiments on humans. These are effective ways of finding out how we learn. Virtual environments are a new way to see if people can learn.
In this case study they used nine volunteers (six women, and three men). All claimed to have very good eyesight for the study. The participants were taught how to install the equipment. The calibration procedure varied in time from 5-20 minutes depending on the systems ability to aquire gaze location. Directives were then given after the subject had familiarized themselves with the virtual environment. These were given through headphones and through the directives they had to learn their environment by looking around while seated. They were then asked to pull off he headsets and indicate what differences they observed.
They recorded the results of the experiments by using two categories. First being the learning effect that the virtual environment had on the subjects. Second being eye movement data analysis.
They concluded that, immersive technologies are a promising tool for tailoring learning environments. According to this study, direct examination of gaze behavior in relation to perceptual learning is relatively unprecidented. The fact that learning in virtual environments can be used and modified to best fit someone’s learning abilities is a very valuable tool. The technology is here and now it just has to be used, tried to where it can be implimented into learning situations.

Works Cited

Albert, G., Renaud, P., Chartier, S., Renaud, L., Sauvé, L., Bouchard, S. CyberPsychology & Behavior; Dec2005, Vol. 8 Issue 6, p592-600