Rich virtual feedback from sensorimotor interaction may harm, not help, learning in immersive virtual reality

Sensorimotor interactions in the physical world and in immersive virtual reality (IVR) offer different feedback. Actions in the physical world almost always offer multi-modal feedback: pouring a jug of water offers tactile (weight-change), aural (the sound of running water) and visual (water moving out the jug) feedback. Feedback from pouring a virtual jug, however, depends on the IVR’s design. This study examines if the richness of feedback from IVR actions causes a detectable cognitive impact on users. To do this, we compared verb-learning outcomes between two conditions in which participants make actions with objects and (1) audiovisual feedback is presented; (2) audiovisual feedback is not presented. We found that participants (n = 74) had cognitively distinct outcomes based on the type of audiovisual feedback experienced, with a high feedback experience harming learning outcomes compared with a low feedback one. This result has implications for IVR system design and theories of cognition and memorisation.