Right Hand,Left Hand,Both Hands: Exploring the Relationship Between Handedness,Interactivity and Cognitive Load in Virtual Reality Procedural Training

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a viable tool for immersive learning, yet the impact of individual differences on user interaction and training outcomes in VR remains somewhat underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by examining the relationship between a number of individual difference and personality variables, interactivity (active vs. passive engagement), and cognitive load in VR. To investigate this, 79 participants were recruited from a university participant pool. One of the variables that emerged as related to performance was handedness(i.e., whether a user is left- or right-handed). Previous research has shown that handedness in VR can explain differences in movement speed, interactivity, and embodiment. Specifically, aligning controls and interactions with the user's dominant hand preferences. In our study, 72 right-handed and 7 left-handed individuals(10%, which is representative of handedness in the population)completed a series of procedural tasks in VR. These tasks were designed with varying levels of interactivity—the active instruction condition affording more user-driven engagement than the passive instruction condition. Performance metrics such as accuracy in the VR post-training test were collected, while cognitive load was measured post-training using a subjective questionnaire. Data analyses were performed using Analyses of Variance and multiple regressions. Results revealed no significant effect of handedness on cognitive load and no interaction effects between handedness and interactivity in the VR post-training scores. However, we found that handedness and cognitive load were significant predictors of procedural training outcomes. These findings suggest that handedness may influence training in VR, underscoring its potential role in shaping learning outcomes. Based on these results, we offer practical considerations for implementing VR-based training across safety critical industries like aviation, defense, and healthcare. These include recommendations for designing VR interfaces that accommodate handedness variability and guidelines for optimizing interactivity to enhance learning outcomes for both right-handed and left-handed users.

Keywords: virtual reality, individual differences, cognitive load, handedness

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006344