To date, budget management in virtual shopping training has not been given much importance. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of virtual shopping budget-management training on executive functions and brain activation. Sixteen participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group that received virtual shopping budget-management training or the waitlist control group for a total of 16 sessions. To examine the effects of virtual shopping budget-management training on brain activation, HbO2 was measured in the prefrontal cortex via functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the Trail Making Test Part B (TMT-B) and Stroop test. Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare outcomes between and within the two groups. The virtual shopping budget-management training showed no significant difference in all outcomes between both groups (p > 0.05). No significant differences were observed in HbO2 levels during both TMT-B (p > 0.05) and the Stroop test (p > 0.05). However, in the pre-post comparisons, there was a significant difference in the TMT-B (p < 0.05) and Stroop test (p < 0.05) in the experimental group. In this study, although we did not find a distinct advantage in training, it confirmed its potential for clinical benefits in healthy young adults through training.
Keywords: IADL; budget management; executive functions; fNIRS; shopping program; virtual reality.