Abstract
The use of real-like hands in virtual reality simulators is common; however, research into understanding how the human brain perceives hands in virtual environments is limited. Self avatars are a great way to improve the users presence and perception of space [6], but the precise implementation of avatars is arduous, and including only hands is an attractive alternative. Earlier psychology research reported that the closer the hands to the studied object, the lower the working memory load. We hypothesized that in virtual environments, virtual hands that are collocated with the users hands should improve the users working memory load, and we tested our hypothesis with a between-participant study (n=30) measuring working memory load with the Stroop Interference Task.