Extended Reality and Individual Differences: Individual Differences in Perception, Cognition, Behavior, and Social Interaction in Synthetic Environments

Extended Reality (XR - immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality) technologies have experienced rapid growth, offering highly realistic and interactive environments that simulate real-world experiences or construct entirely novel spatial scenarios. As these technologies become more integrated into psychological research, education, training, and professional applications, understanding how individuals interact within these digital spaces has become crucial. Central to this inquiry is the concept of individual differences in perception, cognition, behavior, and social interaction—stable variations in how people perceive, process, interpret, and respond to environmental stimuli. While traditional cognitive psychology has extensively investigated these individual differences using conventional two-dimensional paradigms, the high ecological validity and sensory richness of iVR provide a unique opportunity to explore visual attention, spatial navigation, embodied cognition, and human behavior in dynamic, three-dimensional environments.This Research Topic aims to establish a comprehensive, interdisciplinary platform for cutting-edge research investigating the interplay between extended reality and individual differences in cognitive processing. We aim to bring together empirical, theoretical, and methodological contributions that examine how diverse cognitive profiles influence perception, navigation efficiency, behavior, and interaction within immersive virtual environments.We welcome original research, reviews, systematic reviews, conceptual analyses, and methodological papers. Please note that all contributions should address fundamental cognitive, perceptual, or psychological mechanisms, rather than being purely focused on user interface design, technical software development, or system optimization. Relevant themes include, but are not limited to:- Individual differences in visual attention, visual search, and gaze patterns inside immersive virtual reality (utilizing built-in eye-tracking technologies).- The impact of individual differences in cognitive processing on spatial cognition, orientation, and navigation strategies in complex 3D virtual spaces.- Embodied cognition, presence, and agency: How cognitive and reading styles influence the subjective feeling of “being there” (presence) and interaction with virtual avatars or objects.- Cross-cultural variations in cognitive processing, visual attention patterns, and spatial behavior were investigated through cross-national iVR studies.- Collaborative immersive virtual environments: Cognitive and social dynamics of teamwork, communication, and joint problem-solving in shared VR spaces.- Methodological advances, tools, and best practices for assessing, designing, and optimizing virtual environments tailored to diverse user cognitive profiles.- Extended reality as a playground for researchers: how can synthetic environments be used for research, and what are the advantages and constraints?- Extended reality is a new environment influencing human cognition, behavior, and social interaction.- Interplay between humans and artificial agents in synthetic environments. Topic editors: Čeněk Šašinka, Jiří Čeněk, Alzbeta Sasinkova Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83665/extended-reality-and-individual-differences-individual-differences-in-perception-cognition-behavior-and-social-interaction-in-synthetic-environments