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When Avatars Go To School: The Effect of Virtual Reality on Learning

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Lauren Barack¹ (); ¹The Graduate Center, CUNY

Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes Helene and Milton highlight the need for innovative educational solutions that engaged students when they cannot access physical classrooms. Virtual reality (VR) offers a promising next step, where students interact with peers, teachers, and content in immersive spaces that simulate real-world experiences. This study investigated how VR environments influence learning in college students. Participants engaged in a group memory task either in a 2D computer-based setting or a VR “classroom,” taking turns answering general knowledge questions and receiving teacher feedback directly or indirectly through others. A surprise retest measured error correction as a function of environment and feedback type, with self-reported emotional, physical, and task experience and heart rate variability (HRV) measures as mediating variables. VR reduced the typical self-error advantage observed in-person and in 2D conditions: Participants learned nearly equally from their own and others’ mistakes, suggesting heightened social focus in VR. While behavioral analysis showed that VR did not yield higher overall error correction than 2D, self-reported data further indicated that VR participants felt their environment positively affected engagement compared to 2D participants. Physiological data from recorded HRV did not significantly predict error correction performance, although VR and 2D environments differed marginally in HRV patterns. These results indicate that while HRV-based arousal did not account for learning differences, VR promoted comparable engagement and improved attention to others’ errors. Overall, VR may enhance shared attention and engagement through immersive sensory cues, helping overcome the typical advantage for learning from one’s own mistakes.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions