Development and validation of virtual reality-based Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test

Amihai Gottlieb; Glen M Doniger; Shani Kimel-Naor; Oran Ben-Gal; Maya Cohen; Hila Iny; Michal Schnaider Beeri; Meir Plotnik

doi:10.3389/fnagi.2022.980093

Development and validation of virtual reality-based Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test

Front Aging Neurosci. 2022 Sep 14:14:980093. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2022.980093. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Amihai Gottlieb¹, Glen M Doniger^{1

2}, Shani Kimel-Naor¹, Oran Ben-Gal¹, Maya Cohen¹, Hila Iny¹, Michal Schnaider Beeri^{2

3}, Meir Plotnik^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Center of Advanced Technologies in Rehabilitation, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
² Joseph Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
³ Department of Psychiatry, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States.
⁴ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
⁵ Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

Abstract

Objective: Translations and adaptations of traditional neuropsychological tests to virtual reality (VR) technology bear the potential to increase their ecological validity since the technology enables simulating everyday life conditions in a controlled manner. The current paper describes our translation of a commonly used neuropsychological test to VR, the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). For this aim, we developed a VR adaptation of the RAVLT (VR-RAVLT) Which is based on a conversation with a secretary in a virtual office using a fully immersive VR system. To validate the VR-RAVLT, we tested its construct validity, its age-related discriminant validity and its test-retest validity in reference to the original gold standard RAVLT (GS-RAVLT).

Method: Seventy-eight participants from different age groups performed the GS-RAVLT and the VR-RAVLT tests in a counterbalanced order in addition to other neuropsychological tests. Construct validity was validated using Pearson's correlations coefficients and serial position effects; discriminant validity was validated using receiver operating characteristic area under the curve values and test-retest reliability was validated using intraclass correlation coefficients.

Results: Comparing both RAVLTs' format results indicates that the VR-RAVLT has comparable construct, discriminant and test-retest validities.

Conclusion: the novel VR-RAVLT and the GS-RAVLT share similar psychometric properties suggesting that the two tests measure the same cognitive construct. This is an indication of the feasibility of adapting the RAVLT to the VR environment. Future developments will employ this approach for clinical diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test; memory and learning tests; neuropsychological tests; reliability and validity; validation study; virtual reality.