Use of Virtual Reality to Communicate Concepts of Genomics to the General Public
Condition: Healthy; Learning; Communication
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      This study will investigate how people learn best about genetics. It involves participating
      in activities in NHGRI's Immersive Virtual Environment Laboratory (IVE lab), where digital
      "virtual worlds" are created that appear to surround the subject when he or she wears a
      head-mounted display.

      English-speaking men and women between 18 and 40 years of age may be eligible for this study.
      Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups, each of which receives a different
      type of information, once in the IVE lab. Subjects complete a questionnaire before and after
      performing the activities in the lab. The questionnaire evaluates the subject's knowledge of
      genetics and tests some reading and number skills.

      ...
    

Detailed description: 
      This study will be the foundation of an innovative program of research designed to
      investigate how to communicate the complex concepts of genomics to the general public. The
      focus of the study will be one particular concept, the idea that genetic and environmental
      factors interact to affect risk of common diseases. One objective of this study will be to
      examine the effects of pedagogical modality (i.e., learning mode) on conceptual understanding
      (i.e., comprehension). A learning-by-doing (i.e., self-driven, interactive activities)
      condition will be compared to a learning-by-assimilation (i.e., lecture) condition to assess
      the effects on comprehension. The second objective of the study is to examine possible
      moderation of the hypothesized relationship between learning mode and comprehension by health
      literacy or genetic literacy (i.e., literacy skills related to these specific content areas).
      The third study objective is to explore possible mediators of the relationship between
      learning mode and comprehension. These experiments will be conducted in the NIH Immersive
      Virtual Environment Testing area in order to hold presentation medium constant while
      comparing the two learning modes. 150 participants will be for the experimental comparison
      phase. Because in the primary focus of the study is how the general public learns best, study
      participants will be healthy adult volunteers without specialized genetics knowledge.
      Exclusion criteria include self-reported diagnosis with epilepsy, vision or hearing problems,
      and vestibular disorders (e.g., dizziness, vertigo, motion sickness). Two learning-by-doing
      virtual environments (IVEs) and two learning-by-assimilation IVEs have been developed and
      pilot tested, and the IVEs that best convey the idea of gene-environment interactions have
      been selected for the experimental comparison. Participants will be randomized to one of two
      conditions: Learning-by-doing or Learning-by-assimilation; each participant will complete one
      IVE. The study will have two primary outcomes, both measures of comprehension: a
      fourteen-item measure of recall (i.e., remembering content as presented) and a six-item
      measure of transfer (i.e., applying content to new situations). These data will provide a
      foundation for a program of research investigating how best to communicate genomic concepts
      to the general public and, eventually, the development of effective genomic communication
      strategies for disease prevention interventions.
    

Keywords: Genetic Literacy; Learning; Genetic Knowledge; Public Understanding of Science; Science Education; Healthy Volunteer; HV