Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of cognitive training using virtual environment on sustained attention. A total of 27 male juvenile delinquents participated in this study. They were assigned to three groups: cognitive training using virtual environment group(VE group), non-virtual environment cognitive training group(non-VE group), and control group. Before and after training, participants completed continuous performance task(CPT). The difference between pre- and post-training CPT score (hits, reaction time variability, perceptual sensitivity; d', response bias; β) were calculated to investigate the difference of attention among the groups. The difference between CPT scores were analyzed by one way ANOVA. The results were as follows. First, the cognitive training group using virtual environment showed significant increase in hits and decrease in response bias. Second, there was no significant difference between groups in the perceptual sensitivity, but as for VE and non-VE group, there were significant increase in the perceptual sensitivity. Finally, there was no significant difference between groups in the false alarm error. Thus, cognitive training using virtual environment has an effect on improvement of sustained attention.