ABC-Space

Summary

ABC-Space investigates how attention and curiosity unfold in three-dimensional space and how they influence learning in immersive virtual reality. The project focuses in particular on educational VR experiences involving embodied social virtual agents.

The research examines how social signals generated by interactive virtual characters affect cognitive and motivational processes involved in attention, memory and learning. Through new experimental paradigms in VR, the project studies the relationships between curiosity, attention, spatial representation and memory, and how these mechanisms interact in fully immersive environments.

The results aim to contribute to VR science, cognitive science and educational psychology, while informing the design of a new generation of educational virtual agents capable of supporting attention and learning more effectively.

Within ABC-Space, Artanim develops physics-based controllers trained with deep reinforcement learning to drive virtual characters, produces the immersive VR experiments, and contributes to the design of behavioral experiments evaluating their impact on attention and learning.

Partners

Joan Llobera – Artanim
Physics-based interactive virtual characters capable of producing social signals and cues.

Patrik Vuilleumier – University of Geneva, Laboratory for Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition (LABNIC)
Cognitive and affective processes governing human attention in space.

Mireille Bétrancourt – University of Geneva, Educational Technologies (TECFA)
Models of spatial representation used to form cognitive maps and their impact on educational VR experiences.

Related Publications

Deschanet C, Kreienbühl L, Vuilleumier P, Llobera J. Adapting the Posner paradigm to study 360º attention orienting in Virtual Reality, Vision Sciences Society, May 2026.
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