ITPC@VR – Process-Oriented Extension & Experimental Investigation of the Integrated Model of Text-Image Comprehension to Explain Regulated Coherence Formation in Situated Learning in Virtual Reality
Project Description
The project investigates how learners in immersive virtual realities integrate verbal, visual, and digitally augmented information into a coherent mental model. The focus is on how attention is regulated in complex VR environments to selectively perceive relevant information and filter out distracting stimuli. Theoretically, the project extends the ITPC model by conceptualizing coherence construction as process-oriented attention control. Drawing on models from cognitive psychology, two strategies are distinguished: proactive coherence formation through the anticipatory search for relevant visual information, and reactive coherence formation through the suppression of irrelevant stimuli after they appear. Empirically, the model extension is investigated in a 360° VR scenario of an operating room. Medical students are placed in a realistic, clinically relevant virtual learning situation in which they must regulate auditory and visual information and successfully integrate it into a unified mental model to achieve effective coherence formation. The project pursues three objectives: the theoretical advancement of the ITPC model, the empirical examination of coherence-building processes in a medical VR scenario, and the methodological establishment of temporal eye-tracking analyses for process-oriented research in multimedia learning. The project simultaneously addresses a central challenge in medical education by making clinical situations immersively experiential for trainees.
Funding and Duration
Project funding: DFG (HA 10172/3-1; 579320219)
Duration/Status: Summer 2026 to expectedly Summer 2027
Contact
Raum
207
Aachener Straße 197–199
50931 Köln (Besuchsadresse)
Brieffach
9
Adresse
Frangenheimstraße 4
50931 Köln
Sprechstunde