The Virtual Classroom: A Virtual Environment for the Assessment of Attention Processes in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Introduction Digital Media Works and the Virtual Environments Laboratory at the University of Southern California (USC) have evolved a basic research and commercial application program aimed at developing virtual reality (VR) technology applications for the study, assessment, and rehabilitation of cognitive and functional processes. This work primarily focuses on the development of systems that address the needs of clinical populations with some form of central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. These clinical populations include persons with cognitive and functional impairments due to acquired brain injury, learning disabilities and neurological conditions. The rationale for VR applications designed to serve these populations is fairly straightforward. By analogy, much like an aircraft simulator serves to test and train piloting ability under a variety of systematic and controlled conditions, VEs can be developed that create scenarios that may be similarly used to assess and rehabilitate human cognitive and functional processes. This work has the potential to improve our capacity to understand, measure, and treat the impairments typically found in clinical populations with CNS dysfunction as well as advance the scientific study of normal cognitive and functional/behavioral processes. The unique match between VR technology assets and the needs of various clinical application areas has been recognized by a number of authors (Rizzo, 1994; 1997; Pugnetti, 1995; Rose et al. 1997; Rizzo, Schultheis, Kerns & Mateer, 2003) and an encouraging body of research has emerged (Rizzo, Buckwalter and van der Zaag, 2002). What makes VR application development in this area so distinctively important is that it represents more than a simple linear extension of existing computer technology for human use. VR offers the potential to deliver systematic human testing and training simulation environments that allow for the precise control of complex, dynamic 3D stimulus presentations, within which sophisticated behavioral recording is possible. When combining these assets within the context of functionally relevant, ecologically valid VEs, a fundamental advancement emerges in how human cognition and functional behavior can be assessed and rehabilitated. This potential was recognized early on in a visionary article (“The Experience Society”) by VR pioneer, Myron Kruegar (1993), in his prophetic statement that, “...Virtual Reality arrives at a moment when computer technology in general is moving from automating the paradigms of the past, to creating new ones for the future” (p. 163).