6 January 2018

Workshop Introduction: AMMACHI Labs hosted Prof. Miriam Reiner, head of the Virtual Reality and NeuroCognition lab at Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) following a meeting between Prof Bhavani Rao and Prof. Reiner and Dr. Uri Leron at Technion.

Objective: Dr. Miriam’s visit to Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham aimed to promote inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work. She met with key members at Amrita and had group discussions with the AMMACHI Labs Technologies Group at the 2ndFoundation Makerspace. She gave a talk titled “Enhancing human performance- Integrating virtual and augmented reality with physiological measures to study cognitive-affective responses.”

Outcome: One of the recommended approaches in instructional design methods is to optimize the value of working memory capacity and avoid cognitive overload. Dr Miriam discussed on how educational neuroscience offers innovative processes and methodologies to analyze cognitive load based on physiological measures. Observing psychophysiological changes when they occur in response to the course of a learning session allows adjustments in the learning session based on the individual learner’s capabilities. Dr Miriam extolled on the use of easily available non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG)-based devices and advanced near-real-time analysis techniques to improve our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of learning. She said this can impact the way instructional methods are designed and enable them to change according to the learner’s cognitive load and valence states.

Conclusion: The staff and faculty present gained invaluable knowledge in the application of biofeedback and neuropsychology techniques to enhance learning during motor skill training scenarios in virtual simulations.