Cognitive Load in Anatomy Education: fNIRS Data from 21 Medical Students in VR vs 2D Study

A study of 21 first-year medical students learning cardiac anatomy, comparing traditional 2D materials to immersive 3D virtual reality. Prefrontal hemodynamic activity was monitored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and cognitive load was assessed via questionnaire and pre/post-learning tests. The dataset, created by Erika Johannessen and last updated in May 2026, contains results demonstrating neural dynamics differences and classifier performance for cognitive load.

Use Cases

• Training machine learning classifiers to detect cognitive load levels based on fNIRS features mentioned in the description
• Comparing neural activation patterns between 2D and 3D virtual reality learning environments for anatomy education
• Analyzing the relationship between subjective questionnaire scores (intrinsic, extraneous, germane load) and objective neuroimaging data
• Investigating the feasibility of wearable neuroimaging for real-time assessment in instructional systems

Strengths

• Includes neurophysiological (fNIRS) and subjective (Klepsch questionnaire) measures from 21 participants, allowing for multimodal analysis
• Reports specific classifier performance metrics, such as a 92% accuracy for extraneous cognitive load classification
• Dataset is openly licensed under CC-BY-4.0, facilitating reuse and sharing

Limitations

• Row count and column-level documentation are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment and require manual inspection after download
• The dataset is very small at 11.7 KB, indicating a limited scope focused on a specific experimental study
• Sample size is limited to 21 first-year medical students, which may affect generalizability

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Data was collected from a controlled experiment where 21 first-year medical students were randomly assigned to learn cardiac anatomy using either 2D materials or 3D VR, with fNIRS monitoring and questionnaire assessment.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-05 05:28:27; freshness should be verified