Volume 29, Issue 2
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.363
INFLUENCE OF AFFECTIVE PRIMING EFFECT OF IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY HORROR GAMES ON COGNITIVE PROCESSING OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Abstract
This paper aims to disclose how the affective priming effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) horror games influences the cognitive processing of college students. A total of 200 college students were selected and divided evenly into four groups by the random number table method: long-time game (LTG), medium-time game (MTG), short-time game (STG) and non-game (NG) group. Each group has 25 males and 25 females. The members of first three groups were asked to play a horror game for 10, 20 and 30min, respectively. Then, all the subjects underwent the Implicit Association Test (IAT), followed by a word identification task, in which the correct number of responses and reaction time of each student were recorded. The results show that the LTG group outperformed the other groups in cognitive processing and correctness of word identification; the affective state of the fixed intensity level can improve cognitive processing, the hyper-high level of affective activation interferes with or even hinders cognitive processing, and the excessively low activation is insufficient to support cognitive processing. The research results shed new light on the application of immersive VR technology in cognitive learning.
Keywords
Immersive Virtual Reality Horror Game, Affective Priming Effect, Cognitive Processing, College Student.