Investigating the Transfer of Learning, Psychological, and Neural Effects in Immersive Virtual Reality

Achieving mastery or expertise requires a substantial amount of quality practice. Recent technological developments have introduced a novel approach to practice, virtual reality. Specifically, virtual reality offers a low-cost, customizable opportunity to practice while minimizing the risk of the individual. Given that some types of practice may not lead to the acquisition of a motor skill, or worse, lead to detriments of that skill, understanding the developing science of motor behavior in relation to virtual reality is imperative. The following literature review will begin with a brief historical account of the evolution of virtual reality. Next, some terms of virtual reality will be defined, and the technological characteristics will be introduced. Then, fundamental theories of transfer of learning and important variables which likely contribute to transfer of learning will be discussed. In the following section, the current understanding of virtual reality and motor learning will be explained. Research that has examined transfer of learning within immersive virtual reality will then be examined and discussions of the findings and limitations will be presented. Finally, to address the aforementioned shortcomings, the following project was a two-experimental study to investigate the transfer of learning effects of virtual reality motor skill practice.