Comparing Cognitive and Psychological Factors in Virtual Reality and Real Environments: A CAVE Experimental Study

The emergence and application of Building Information Modelling, Internet of Things, and Computer Aided Virtual Environments (CAVEs) has created new opportunities for remote monitoring and decision-making in the operational built environment. However, there is a lack of research into the viability of CAVEs as an alternative for on-site decision-making in the built environment. This paper critiques previous literature before applying a framework for the evaluation of virtual environments, to compare task and human performance in a CAVE and real-world setting. Situation awareness, workload, presence, anxiety, usability, behaviour and user experience are all measured and compared between the two environments. The study found the CAVE system outperformed the real-world across several dimensions, indicating the viability of their use in this domain. Finally, the implication of the results are discussed with regards to the existing literature.