ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognitive Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1581029
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Metaverse and the Human Experience: Exploring Healthcare, Social Connection, and BeyondView all articles
Assessing the Impact of Virtual Workplaces on Collaboration and Learning
Provisionally accepted
Irene Sánchez Rodríguez*
Luca BailoFolco Panizza
Valerie van EsMarzio Alessi
Monica Betta
Emiliano Ricciardi- IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy
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The shift towards remote work and digitization has led to widespread adoption of virtual collaboration tools offering enhanced opportunities for remote interaction but also introducing challenges related to communication, security, and social dynamics. This study examines the impact of different workplace environments-physical presence, videoconferencing, non immersive Metaverse, and immersive Metaverse -on task performance, cognitive engagement, ergonomics, and social dynamics while performing work-related tasks of collaboration and learning. Overall, 103 participants completed an 'active' social decision-making task and a 'passive' information retention task. Behavioral and electrophysiological data, including electroencephalography-derived measures of concentration, fatigue, and relaxation, were collected to assess participants' cognitive and emotional states across the four scenarios. While virtual environments supported active collaboration similarly to physical presence, fully immersive environments like Metaverse VR+ led to reduced concentration and increased cognitive load, particularly during passive learning tasks. Gender and age influenced engagement, with female participants showing consistently higher attentional focus and older participants demonstrating greater effectiveness in certain tasks. Ergonomic factors, such as device comfort and ease of use, were found to significantly affect both cognitive engagement and relaxation. The findings suggest that virtual platforms can replicate many aspects of physical presence, though crucial differences in cognitive load, comfort, and engagement persist, particularly in fully immersive environments. These insights highlight the potential of virtual platforms like the Metaverse to enhance remote collaboration and learning but also underscore the need for thoughtful design to minimize cognitive fatigue and ergonomic discomfort. This study provides valuable insights into how virtual workplaces can serve as both alternatives and transformative tools for future work environments.
Keywords: Metaverse, virtual reality, social cognition, collaboration, Learning, virtual workplaces
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sánchez Rodríguez, Bailo, Panizza, Es, Alessi, Betta and Ricciardi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Irene Sánchez Rodríguez, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, Lucca, Italy
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