Mental States and Creativity of the Subject in a Didactic VR Environment of Various Immersiveness

Abstract

This article examines the changes in mental states and personality creativity when working with short-term virtual reality. This is part of comprehensive research on personality (and mental in general) changes in didactic and training VR programs. The first part of the work was aimed at examining the influence of modern didactic programs in virtual reality (VR) on mental states in adolescence. The materials of empirical research obtained on a sample of 1—2-year students of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education and SmolSU are presented. In study 1 (N = 73) (with a highly immersive VR program) and 2 (N = 46) (using a didactic VR environment of low immersion), respondents aged 19 to 26 took part. We used the «Actual state» methodology by L.V. Kulikova, «Assessment of Mood», didactic VR programs are used as instructive independent variables. The results obtained indicate that the didactic VR environment of the highest level may has a significant effect on mental states, increasing indicators on the scales of activation, excitement, tone, euphoria, and reducing asthenia indicators. Conditions such as well-being, normal mood, calmness remain stable in immersive didactic VR. In the control sample, in a less immersive VR-environment, statistically significant changes in indicators — tone, excitement, well-being were not revealed. The second part of the research, which examines the effect of higher-level VR programs on creativity, was carried out using a similar mixed factorial design with one independent variable. Johnson’s questionnaire, Torrance and Rorschach tests were used to diagnose creativity. In the experimental group (with vive helmets), in the parameters of all three tests, significant differences were diagnosed according to the Wilcoxon criterion of no less than 95%. In the control group, where the subjects worked with the same program («Surfaces of the second order») on ordinary monitors, the significance of the changes was confirmed by the method of Johnson and Torrance by the Wilcoxon test, by the G test «in Torrance», the changes were not reliable, by «Rorschach», by the two criteria, the changes were not reliable. In general, the results showed that the higher immersiveness of even short didactic VR programs promotes greater changes in creativity. The effectiveness of VR programs in influencing mental states and creativity is determined by the successful modeling of 3D objects, high animation, interactivity, originally incorporated into the content of higher level VR. Changes in creativity in VR, along with changes in cognitive processes, personal parameters (motivation, abilities, focus, consciousness), mental states are considered as an indicator of the presence and specificity of VR ontology.