Pre-Training Effects on Sleep-Dependent Consolidation of Novel Word Learning in Immersive Virtual Reality

The present study employed immersive virtual reality (iVR) technology to create a multimodal enriched learning environment and investigated the effects of pre-training on sleep-dependent consolidation of novel word learning. Native Chinese speakers were randomly assigned to either a pre-training group or a control group. Both groups learned two sets of novel words, one on Day 1 and the other on Day 2. All participants completed an explicit recognition task and an implicit semantic priming task on Day 2. The results reveal the sleep-dependent consolidation effects in the implicit measures, with enhanced semantic priming observed for words learned on the previous day following a sleep interval. Moreover, the pre-training yielded additional benefits for sleep-dependent consolidation, as evidenced by the improved sleep-dependent consolidation effects of the pre-training group as compared with the control group. However, no sleep-dependent consolidation and pre-training effects were observed in the explicit recognition task. These findings suggested that pre-training serves as an effective strategy to reduce cognitive load and facilitate novel word learning in iVR environments. This study provides new evidence for the pre-training principle of cognitive load theory from the perspective of sleep-dependent consolidation.