The presence of external observers has been shown to affect performance on cognitive tasks, but the parameters of this impact for different types of tasks and the underlying neural dynamics are less understood. The current study examined the behavioral and brain activity effects of perceived observation on participants’ visual working memory (VWM) in a virtual reality (VR) classroom setting, using the task format as a moderating variable. Participants (n = 21) were equipped with a 57-channel EEG cap, and neural data were collected as they completed two VWM tasks under two observation conditions (observed and not observed) in a within-subjects experimental design. The “observation” condition was operationalized through the addition of a static human avatar in the VR classroom. The avatar’s presence was associated with a significant effect on extending the task response time, but no effect was found on task accuracy. This outcome may have been due to a ceiling effect, as the mean participant task scores were quite high. EEG data analysis supported the behavioral findings by showing consistent differences between the no-observation and observation conditions for one of the VWM tasks only. These neural differences were identified in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the occipital cortex (OC) regions, with higher theta-band activity occurring in the dlPFC during stimulus encoding and in the OC during response selection when the “observing” avatar was present. These findings provide evidence that perceived observation can inhibit performance during visual tasks by altering attentional focus, even in virtual contexts.

Participants (n = 99) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 x 2 factorial design that crossed visual surveillance with expected evaluation. Participants in the surveillance condition were told that their computer’s screen would be remotely observed as they worked, along with as a live video and audio feed. Participants in the evaluation group were told that their work would be evaluated later by experts. Risk-taking perception and intrinsic motivation were assessed through a self-report instrument. In contrast to prior literature, the study did not find an effect of surveillance or evaluation-expectation on creativity or intrinsic task motivation. Social risk-taking was found to have an indirect positive relationship with creativity mediated through intrinsic motivation. The findings are discussed in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth of remote work, and other possible confounding variables including race and socioeconomic status. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Times; panose-1:0 0 5 0 0 0 0 2 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1342185562 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; line-height:200%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Times;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times; mso-ascii-font-family:Times; mso-fareast-font-family:Times; mso-hansi-font-family:Times;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;}