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EPELI: A novel virtual reality task for the assessment of goal-directed behavior in real-life contexts
Seesjärvi,Erik Puhakka,Jasmin Aronen,Eeva T. Hering,Alexandra Zuber,Sascha Merzon,Liya Kliegel,Matthias Laine,Matti Salmi,Juha
Seesjärvi,Erik
Puhakka,Jasmin
Aronen,Eeva T.
Hering,Alexandra
Zuber,Sascha
Merzon,Liya
Kliegel,Matthias
Laine,Matti
Salmi,Juha
Abstract
A recently developed virtual reality task, EPELI (Executive Performance in Everyday LIving), quantifies goal-directed behavior in naturalistic conditions. Participants navigate a virtual apartment, performing household chores given by a virtual character. EPELI aims to tap attention, executive function, and prospective memory. To ensure its applicability to further research and clinical work and to study its relationship to relevant background factors, we examined several key properties of EPELI in 77 typically developing 9–13-year-old children. These included EPELI’s internal consistency, age and gender differences, sensitivity to gaming experience, head-mounted display (HMD) type, and verbal recall ability, as well as its relationships with parent-rated everyday executive problems. Of the eight EPELI measures, the following six showed acceptable internal consistency: task and navigation efficacy, number of correctly performed tasks and overall actions, time monitoring, and controller movement. Some measures were associated with age, gender, or verbal encoding ability. Moreover, EPELI performance was associated with parent-rated everyday executive problems. There were no significant associations of gaming background, task familiarity, or HMD type with the EPELI measures. These results attest to the reliability and ecological validity of this new virtual reality tool for the assessment of attention, executive functions, and prospective memory in children.
Description
Funding Information: Open Access funding provided by University of Helsinki including Helsinki University Central Hospital. The study was supported by the Academy of Finland (Grants #325981 and #328954 to JS, Grant #323251 to ML). ES received support from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Grants #00190963 and #00201002) and Arvo and Lea Ylppö Foundation (Grant #202010005). LM acquired grants from the Finnish Cultural Foundation (#00210721) and the Finnish Foundation for Psychiatric Research (#20210019).
Date
2023
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Keywords
BRAIN, CHILDHOOD, CHILDREN, DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORIES, ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY, EXECUTIVE FUNCTION, FAMILIARITY, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT, PROSPECTIVE MEMORY, WORKING-MEMORY
Citation
Seesjärvi, E, Puhakka, J, Aronen, E T, Hering, A, Zuber, S, Merzon, L, Kliegel, M, Laine, M & Salmi, J 2023, 'EPELI : A novel virtual reality task for the assessment of goal-directed behavior in real-life contexts', Psychological Research, vol. 87, no. 6, pp. 1899-1916. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01770-z