Effects of Egocentric Versus Exocentric Virtual Object Storage Technique on Cognition in Virtual Environments

As tasks in Virtual and Augmented Reality applications become increasingly complex, there is a need to better organize information or virtual objects within the virtual environment. For example, 3D Widget or menus may need to hide information from the user until it is needed. Users may need to organize their own virtual objects or tools by storing them until usage is needed or carry with them to another location. For these scenarios and others, there may be benefits to associating or storing virtual objects in relation to one’s own avatar (Egocentric) or in relation to the other virtual objects in the environment (Exocentric). This paper presents the results of a user study comparing the effects of Egocentric and Exocentric Virtual Object Storage Techniques on cognition in a virtual environment. Participants performed a task that enabled them to store virtual objects using different Virtual Object Storage Techniques. As participants completed their tasks, we measured task and cognition performance. We found that the egocentric technique improves task performance, increases accuracy, and reduces cognitive workload during memory task for virtual object storage in comparison to the exocentric technique in a virtual environment.