Current pen-and-paper testing procedures for people with neurocognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer's patients or those with traumatic brain injuries, are often inadequate in determining executive cognitive functionality. Professor Interrante and her students are working with a team of psychologists at the University of North Texas to create a virtual grocery store through which they are able to create a detailed and realistic testing environment. Immersive virtual reality allows the team to eliminate external factors and inconsistencies associated with testing in real-world locations while preserving the familiarity of the environment to maximize both accuracy and efficiency.
During this summer, my goals for the project include updating and reorganizing the grocery store and collaborating with the team to compile and implement a set of realistic tasks to test for different executive functions.
For more information on the study:
University of North Texas Project Page
"Enhancing Neurocognitive Assessment Using Immersive Virtual Reality" by Thomas D. Parsons, Susan McPherson, and Victoria Interrante
