Virtually Being Einstein Results in an Improvement in Cognitive Task Performance and a Decrease in Age Bias

Abstract

The brain's body representation is amenable to rapid change, even though we tend to think of our bodies as relatively fixed and stable. For example, it has been shown that a life-sized body perceived in virtual reality as substituting the participant's real body, can be felt as if it were their own, and that the body type can induce perceptual, attitudinal and behavioral changes. Here we show that changes can also occur in cognitive processing and specifically, executive functioning. Fifteen male participants were embodied in a virtual body that signifies super-intelligence (Einstein) and 15 in a (Normal) virtual body of similar age to their own. The Einstein body participants performed better on a cognitive task than the Normal body, considering prior cognitive ability (IQ), with the improvement greatest for those with low self-esteem. Einstein embodiment also reduced implicit bias against older people. Hence virtual body ownership may additionally be used to enhance executive functioning.

Keywords: Tower of London test; age bias; body ownership; embodiment; executive functioning; implicit association test; rubber hand illusion; virtual reality.

Figure 1

The experimental setup. The body of the participant was substituted by a gender-matched VB, viewed from 1PP, onto which body and head movements were mapped in real time. (A) The Einstein virtual body. (B) The Normal virtual body. (C) Participants were fitted with an HTC VIVE head-mounted display, and their body movements were tracked by 37 OptiTrack markers.

Figure 2

Box plot of questionnaire scores on body ownership and agency. The horizontal thick lines are the medians, the boxes are the Interquartile Ranges (IQR), and the whiskers range from max (min value, lower quartile−1.5^*IQR) to min (max value, upper quartile + 1.5^*IQR).

Figure 3

Bar chart showing mean and standard error of dscore by Body.

Figure 4

Scatter diagram of dscore by fsiq and Body.

Figure 5

Bar chart showing mean and standard error of diat by Body.

Figure 6

Bar charts showing means and standard errors of preIAT and postIAT by Body.

Figure 7

Bar chart showing the means and standard errors of dscore by Body and Esteem. Lower Esteem refers to the group with selfesteem ≤ median of the sample (32.5) and Higher Esteem to those with selfesteem > median.

Figure 8

Posterior estimates of dscore by observed dscore, r = 0.66, n = 29.