Virtual reality application influences cognitive load‐mediated creativity components and creative performance in engineering design

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) can promote design performance, and may generate a high cognitive load and affect creative design thinking as well. In order to examine the effect of VR application on cognitive load and engineering design creativity, this study recruited 81 eighth-grade students as participants and employed a non-equivalentgroups quasi-experimental design to examine how VR application influences creativity components and creative performance. A creativity component scale (creative motivation, creative thinking, and professional cognition), a measurement of creative performance, and a cognitive load scale were used to collect data. The study also investigated the ability of VR application to predict creativity components and creative performance, using cognitive load as the mediator. The conclusions are as follows: (1) VR application had marked effects on professional cognition and creative motivation but no effect on creative thinking skills. (2) VR application had marked effects on the novelty and usefulness aspects of creative performance, particularly with respect to usefulness. (3) VR application had marked effects on extraneous and germane cognitive load, but no influence on intrinsic cognitive load, and (4) Both VR application and cognitive load were able to predict creativity components and creative performance. Their abilities to predict creative performance approached an acceptable level. Nevertheless, VR application had no effect on general creative thinking skills; therefore, other teaching strategies are needed to strengthen creative thinking.

Virtual Reality and Creativity: Lessons Learned from a Luminaire Design Project

“…Interestingly, a study on VR and creativity used only two components of novelty and resolution from CPSS. These two components indicated an adequate internal consistency (.62) and explained 72.6% variance in the creativity of participants (n ¼ 81) [10]. Overall, CPSS is a conceptualand statistical-reliable measurement of creativity.…”

“…Among those, VR has become more important in education, especially for design disciplines, due to its affordability and accessibility [7,8]. Remarkably, current literature shows that integrating VR into design education benefited students' creativity by reducing the cognitive load to process or improving the precision of their designs [9][10][11][12]. Therefore, design educators should focus on these technologies to prepare students for Industry 4.0.…”

Effects of virtual reality on creativity performance and perceived immersion: A study of brain waves

“…In contrast, the environment of the control group enabled meditation, attention, brain wave activity, alpha brain wave oscillation, desynchronization of the alpha brain waves and other conditions conducive to creativity-related brain waves. According to previous studies and cognitive load theory, VR application had marked effects on extraneous cognitive load and germane cognitive load but not intrinsic cognitive load (Chen et al, 2021). Furthermore, since working memory is limited, increasing extraneous cognitive load can hinder cognition by misplacing memory capacity from germane and intrinsic cognitive load.…”

Design-thinking skill enhancement in virtual reality: A literature study

“…However, in our reviewed publications, only two articles focused on altering the aspects of self and self-perception (Skibina and Taratukhin, 2021;Chen et al, 2022). One publication discussed the augmentation of design skill from the perspective of empathy.…”