Social cognition assessment using virtual reality: A systematic review.

Social cognition refers to the abilities that allow us to perceive, process, and respond to others’ behaviors and emotions. Technological advancements in virtual reality (VR) support its potential for evaluating social cognition and addressing limitations of traditional psychometric measures. A systematic review was conducted to document VR tasks that have been used to study social cognition. An inventory of these tasks is provided along with detailed information on study, participant, assessment tool, and technological characteristics. Challenges and limitations associated with these tools are discussed to inform future directions for using VR for social cognition. Embase, APA PsycInfo, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were queried using relevant keywords. Articles were screened for eligibility according to the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Study design criteria. The data extraction table was developed from relevant literature. Two reviewers performed screening and extraction steps independently, and disagreements were resolved by a third independent reviewer. Sixty-six studies were included, covering 59 unique VR tools assessing social cognition in the following areas: emotion processing, social perception, moral reasoning, theory of mind, empathy, and attribution style. Most paradigms targeted emotion processing. Autism and schizophrenia were the most studied clinical conditions. Important issues identified through the review included challenges associated with cultural adaptations and limited psychometric data. Numerous options are available to study social cognition using VR, but most focus on lower order sociocognitive abilities (e.g., emotion processing), and future work should seek to develop stimuli or environments that can target more complex skills and can accommodate greater diversity for cross-cultural use.