Aging often leads to decreased social engagement.While technology has the potential to improve the quality of life among older adults, not much is known about effects of new technologies, including virtual reality (VR) appli- cations, on their well-being. This paper reports on a field study conducted with older adults in assisted living communities to understand how use of a VR system may contribute to their emotional and social well-being. During the study, a two-week intervention was done with an experimental group that used a VR system to view contents related to travel and relaxation, and a control group that used

The use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) promises many benefits for older adults, such as promoting a healthy lifestyle with health-related gaming, maintaining social contact via digital interfaces, supporting rehabilitation, and aiding in everyday life tasks (Czaja et al., 2019; Schlomann et al., 2019; Appel et al., 2020; Dermody et al., 2020). AR allows users to interact in new ways with their real environment, whereas VR provides them with new experiences in virtual environments. Although VR/AR user experiences may enhance well-being among older adults (e.g., Montana et al., 2020; Tuena et al., 2020), this group is largely neglected in current VR/AR participatory

Virtual Reality (VR) has been increasingly used for enrichment in later life. This review aims to investigate what is currently known about this topic. Following the PRISMA guidelines, fifteen articles were included for in-depth review. The review indicates that this topic is being explored by researchers in multiple disciplines. The VR systems in the studies reviewed ranged from fully immersive to less immersive systems. For most study participants, emotions were positively changed after experiencing VR. Participants enjoyed travel-based applications, social interaction, and reminiscing about things in new and interesting ways with the blending of multisensory experiences. VR experiences were improved

Objective Modern technologies are increasingly used in the development of cognitive interventions for older adults. Research into possible applications of virtual reality in such interventions has begun only recently. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effects of 8 sessions of VR-based cognitive training using the GRADYS game in healthy older adults (n = 72; aged 60–88) and older adults living with mild dementia (n = 27; aged 60–89). Results Older adults with mild dementia demonstrated worse baseline cognitive performance than participants without dementia. Both groups showed progress in training, which was greater in healthy older adults. There were also significant differences