Investigating the Impact of Mixed Reality (MR) on Healthcare: Moderating the Relationship Between Cognitive Load and Perceived Diagnostic Competence

I want you to write a 3000-word literature review based on the following: • Use high-quality cited and up-to-date references. • Based on the below information to write the literature review “Title: Investigating the Impact of Mixed Reality (MR) on Healthcare: Moderating the Relationship Between Cognitive Load and Perceived Diagnostic Competence Research Description The present study explores the impact of Mixed Reality (MR) diagnostics on perceived performance in healthcare practitioners when diagnosing complex medical cases. The primary focus is on diagnostic complexity, which includes factors such as the number of symptoms present, ambiguity of symptoms, rarity of the condition, the need for multiple diagnostic tests, the interdependency of diagnostic factors, and the requirement for specialist interpretation. These factors often increase clinicians’ mental effort (or cognitive load) when diagnosing challenging conditions. The study investigates how cognitive load acts as a mediator between diagnostic complexity and perceived performance—such that higher complexity leads to increased cognitive load, which in turn reduces perceived performance. Furthermore, this research examines how Mixed Reality (MR) can moderate the relationship between cognitive load and perceived performance. MR, with its ability to overlay virtual diagnostic tools and real-time visualizations on real-world clinical settings, is expected to reduce cognitive load and improve diagnostic confidence, accuracy, and efficiency in complex cases. Through this study, we aim to understand how MR and AI-driven tools can assist healthcare professionals in managing the complexity of diagnostic tasks, ultimately enhancing their clinical decision-making performance. By integrating both subjective measures (e.g., confidence, satisfaction) and objective metrics (e.g., diagnostic accuracy, time to diagnosis), this research seeks to provide insights into how these advanced technologies can reduce mental strain and improve outcomes in medical diagnostics. Research Hypothesis H1a: The number of symptoms present will positively affect cognitive load, such that an increase in the number of symptoms will lead to a higher cognitive load in medical diagnostics. H1b: Ambiguity of symptoms will positively affect cognitive load, with higher ambiguity resulting in greater mental effort and cognitive load during the diagnostic process. H1c: The rarity of the condition will positively affect cognitive load, such that rare conditions will require more cognitive effort for accurate diagnosis. H1d: The need for multiple diagnostic tests will positively affect cognitive load, as more tests require additional processing and decision-making effort. H1e: The interdependency of diagnostic factors will positively affect cognitive load, with more interdependencies increasing mental complexity and workload. H1f: The requirement for specialist interpretation will positively affect cognitive load, as additional expertise adds to the cognitive load required for diagnostic decision-making. H2: Higher cognitive load will negatively affect perceived performance, such that an increase in cognitive load will lead to lower perceived diagnostic performance (e.g., confidence, accuracy, efficiency). H3: Mixed Reality (MR) will moderate the relationship between cognitive load and perceived performance, such that MR will reduce cognitive load and improve perceived performance, particularly in complex diagnostic cases. H4: The mediating effect of cognitive load on the relationship between diagnostic complexity and perceived performance will be moderated by Mixed Reality (MR), such that MR will reduce cognitive load, thereby enhancing perceived performance, especially in high-complexity diagnostic scenarios. This study integrates Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand how diagnostic complexity impacts cognitive load and perceived performance in healthcare practitioners, with a particular focus on the moderating role of Mixed Reality (MR). This integrated approach posits that diagnostic complexity impacts cognitive load and that the presence of MR can moderate this relationship by reducing cognitive strain. In turn, a lower cognitive load is expected to lead to better perceived performance. Furthermore, perceived usefulness and ease of use of MR technology (from the TAM perspective) will influence its effectiveness in reducing cognitive load and improving diagnostic performance.”