The impact of a cognitive training program using virtual reality in young adults with intellectual disability: pilot study

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Joana Rita Dias
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/24895
• topic: Intellectual disability; Virtual reality; Cognitive training; Serious games; Executive functions

Individuals with intelectual disability have a persistente delay in the development of executive funstions. Virtual reality is increasingly a cognitive intervention tool and has demonstrated effectiveness in this area. This dissertation aims to investigate the impact of cognitive training based on Immersive Virtual Reality on executive functions, such as working memory, sustained attention an inhibitory control in young adults with Intellectual Disability. A quasi-experimental study with a one-group pretest-posttest design and double pretest (0102X03) was conducted. The participants (N=15) completed 24 sessions using virtual reality-based games from the Enhance VR program. The intervention included 3 games: Whack-a-mole, React and Memory Wall. The participants underwent pre and post-intervention evaluations using the E-Prime® 3.0 from Psychology Software Tools (Corsi Block-Tapping Task; Stop Signal Task; Simple Reaction Time). The results demonstrated that there was a significant improvment in the results of working memory (p=0.001) and inhibitory control (p=0.043), and the value of the interaction between intervention and time was also significant (p=0.010) while the sustained attention was not found to be statistically significant. According of these findings, VR-based serious game interventions (Enhance-Virtuleap) may be valuable for stimulating executive functions in individuals with intelectual disabilities.