Environmental Modulation of Perceived Cognitive Workload During a Memory Task: Evidence from Immersive Virtual Reality

Understanding how environmental contexts influence cognitive functioning is a key issue in cognitive science and applied ergonomics. This study examined whether everyday environmental settings modulate task performance and perceived cognitive workload during a card-matching memory task, using high-fidelity immersive Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Participants performed the task by sequentially uncovering cards and remembering their spatial locations to identify matching pairs in two virtual scenarios: a naturalistic environment (urban park) and an artificial setting (office). The number of moves and time of execution were collected as behavioral measures. Perceived cognitive workload was assessed after task completion in each condition using the Simulation Task Load Index (SIM-TLX). Behavioral performances did not differ between environments. However, participants reported lower perceived cognitive workload when performing the task in the naturalistic environment. This effect was not uniform across individuals: the reduction in perceived cognitive workload was primarily observed among participants exhibiting high levels of task efficiency. These findings suggest that environmental context interacts with individual cognitive efficiency by modulating the perceived cognitive workload without necessarily affecting objective performance outcomes. Overall, the results suggest that naturalistic immersive virtual contexts may mitigate perceived cognitive workload during memory-based tasks, highlighting the role of contextual factors in influencing cognitive efforts under ecologically valid conditions.