David Beyea, Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Yiming (Skylar) Lei, Hanjie Liu, Gabriel E. Hales, Chaeyun Lim
{"title":"A New Meta-Analysis of the Proteus Effect: Studies in VR Find Stronger Effect Sizes","authors":"David Beyea, Rabindra (Robby) Ratan, Yiming (Skylar) Lei, Hanjie Liu, Gabriel E. Hales, Chaeyun Lim","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00392","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study examines why some studies of the Proteus effect—the phenomenon that people tend to conform behaviorally and attitudinally to their avatars’ identity characteristics—facilitate the phenomenon more effectively than others. A previous meta-analysis of the Proteus effect (Ratan et al., 2020) failed to examine potentially notable moderating factors of the phenomenon, so we examine such factors through a meta-analysis of the 56 quantitative experimental Proteus effect studies published at the time of this analysis. Studies that utilized virtual reality technology (e.g., head-mounted displays) elicited stronger effect sizes than those that utilized flat screens, as hypothesized. No support was found for the hypothesis that effect sizes differ by software type utilized (commercial or custom-built). We offer suggestions for future research into the Proteus effect, and how to best examine possible variables of the phenomenon.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"16 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127614659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matti Pouke, Johanna Ylipulli, Elmeri Uotila, Anna-Kaisa Sitomaniemi, Sakaria Pouke, T. Ojala
{"title":"A Qualitative Case Study on Deconstructing Presence for Young Adults and Older Adults","authors":"Matti Pouke, Johanna Ylipulli, Elmeri Uotila, Anna-Kaisa Sitomaniemi, Sakaria Pouke, T. Ojala","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00397","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00397","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this paper, we present the results of an exploratory qualitative case study on presence experienced by groups of young adults and older adults during their use of an interactive virtual reality application mixing realistic and fantasy elements. In contrast to most previous studies, we do not focus on a set of predetermined factors but instead adopt an open-ended qualitative approach to identify emerging factors from the users' experiences. We then analyze these factors against the place illusion/plausibility illusion (PI/PSI) framework of Skarbez, Neyret, et al. (2017) to investigate whether PI and PSI, as well as their contributing factors, can be separated. According to our findings, a user can experience PI and PSI independently from each other; however, they often appeared intermixed when investigated on the scope of the whole experience. Breaks in presence, as well as breaks in plausibility, could mostly, but not entirely, be attributed to immersion and coherence factors, respectively. An interesting finding is that both participant groups turned out to have two subgroups interpreting their experience with a particular frame of reference of differing expectations. These frames of reference affected not only PSI, as expected, but PI as well, suggesting that coherence could be a contributing factor to both PI and PSI. Our contribution adds to the relatively small body of research investigating the separation of PI and PSI. Our exploratory findings can be utilized as directions for designing future confirmatory studies.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114955815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pia Tikka, Robert G. McNamara, L. Gerry, Ilkka Kosunen, Mauri Kaipainen
{"title":"Designing Enactive Co-Presence: Second-Order Simulation of Empathy for Artificial Humans in Narrative Contexts","authors":"Pia Tikka, Robert G. McNamara, L. Gerry, Ilkka Kosunen, Mauri Kaipainen","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00378","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Human interactions with human-like Computer-Generated Others (CGOs) have continued to become more prevalent in the rush to technologize societies. As such, the need for close analysis of mediative dynamics between humans and CGOs has become compelling. Relying on the theoretical framework of embodied enactive cognition, this paper will discuss designing human empathetic experiences of co-presence with CGOs. We propose a two-level idea of enactive simulation: the assumption of the first-order simulation (human simulating other) is built on the holistic assumption that humans understand others thanks to shared physical embodiment and enactive situatedness, while second-order simulation (designer simulating human simulating other) is the cognitive-affective means of the designer of human–machine encounters to apply their own first-order experiences to simulate the simulation of the Experiencer. Our key assumption is that context is the defining component of co-presence, thereby allowing experimental situations of co-presence to be contextualized by means of mediated narratives. The case study experiment, Booth, designed to model affective-cognitive experiences of co-presence at encounters of human Experiencers with two artificial asylum seekers, allowed us to identify different factors of the dynamics influencing the experience of empathy and the ensuing decisions concerning asylum, in particular, the contextualizing narrative.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"186 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123056154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Zielke, Djakhangir Zakhidov, Malavika Prasad Shringarpure, Erik DeFries, Rudy Avila, Jacob Keul, Dean Carpenter Turner, Stacy Hargrove, S. Bateman, Christopher Young
{"title":"Exploring the Usability of Phone-Based Virtual Reality in Management-Communication Training","authors":"M. Zielke, Djakhangir Zakhidov, Malavika Prasad Shringarpure, Erik DeFries, Rudy Avila, Jacob Keul, Dean Carpenter Turner, Stacy Hargrove, S. Bateman, Christopher Young","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00391","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00391","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Phone-based virtual reality (VR) is a potentially important delivery medium for management communication training, particularly as hybrid work environments create the need for new ways to deliver training experiences where students can role-play and practice privately with virtual employees. However, few studies have focused on the viability of delivering phone-based VR, particularly in terms of understandability and usability. In this preliminary case study, we utilize a proxy group of business school students and study their ability to assemble, navigate, and complete a training module using a phone-based VR system that focuses on management communication training. Overall, the system obtained an excellent mean rating on a common standardized instrument, the System Usability Scale (SUS), and other measures. We also detail concerns of a small but important participant group who gave the system less favorable ratings and delineate modifications that may be appropriate for the intended audience, Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) employees.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"133 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131413946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Effect of Self-Controlling Difficulty Levels in a Virtual Environment","authors":"N. Yuviler-Gavish, Ezra Ozery, E. Tarazi","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00381","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the current study we examine whether, in a virtual environment, self-controlling the difficulty level of a game will result in worse performance compared to a fixed difficulty level. Our hypothesis is evaluated using a novel VR game. Forty-five participants were randomly assigned to two between-participants groups: the Experimental group, in which the participant determined the desired level of difficulty in all five game sets by themselves, and the Controlled group, in which the level of difficulty was set to medium for all participants in all game sets. The results demonstrate that the mean difficulty level selected by the Experimental group was lower than medium in the first two sets, and higher than medium in the last three sets. In the last two sets, an earlier termination of the game and lower scores were demonstrated for the Experimental group compared to the Controlled group. The conclusions are that the participants in an unfamiliar virtual environment might not be able to select their difficulty levels to match the task at hand and might not optimize their learning zones.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115509210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Was It for You? Qualitative Observational Methods to Assess the Experiential Value of Two Immersive Augmented Reality Stories: A Case Study","authors":"Liam Noah Jefferies","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00368","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Immersive storytelling using augmented reality is a well-established and widely researched practice with a growing body of literature spanning the last two decades in which researchers from various fields apply this technology to cultural spaces. Despite this, the methodologies used to assess the efficacy of these applications—even defined measures of what constitutes success—remain disparate and often aligned to the field from which they originated—these being HCI, Visitor Studies, and New Media Art. The form these interventions take and the modes of storytelling they employ is steadily diversifying alongside theories and definitions of what constitutes a story. In this context of divergence, a reimagination of the methods researchers use to evaluate and assess their projects would be useful to ensure the nuances of the engaged experience and the value it offers to audiences can be captured. This paper proposes a methodological approach, seeking to enable the evaluation of experiential value. This methodological approach is then applied to two augmented reality immersive stories, created by the author, the first an educational, linear narrative and the second a nonlinear narrative artwork. Using primarily qualitative narrative observation, participant interactions with both projects are explored, testing the application of experiential value as a measure and interrogating the chosen methodology's ability to capture it.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129448560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
G. Gorisse, Audrey Brousse, S. Richir, O. Christmann
{"title":"Quantitative and Qualitative Exploration of the Effect of a Wearable Item on Non-Organic Virtual Limb Embodiment and User Behavior in Immersive Environments","authors":"G. Gorisse, Audrey Brousse, S. Richir, O. Christmann","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00389","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This experiment was designed to investigate the potential contribution to the sense of embodiment of a wristband worn by the participants in both real and virtual environments. In addition, two virtual limb models were compared following a mixed between-within subjects design: an organic hand and a non-organic prosthesis matching the proposed task. Quantitative results revealed no significant effect of the wristband, while post-experiment semistructured interviews revealed that the wristband fostered the identification with the virtual limbs for several participants, but that it might be conditioned by interindividual differences. Ownership scores were significantly higher with the virtual hand. However, participants experienced a very high sense of agency with both conditions despite the lack of finger tracking when controlling the prosthesis. Agency was positively correlated with participants' perceived change in their body schema when embodying the prosthesis. Subjective and objective measures demonstrated that participants were less hesitant and that more collisions were recorded at higher speeds against potentially threatening objects with the non-organic prosthesis.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130306363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yuchen Zhao, Brandy Pettijohn, Amanda Y. Wang, Danielle Keehn, Angela Dai, Joy Dang, J. Murray
{"title":"Exploring Location-Based AR Narrative Design for Historic Site","authors":"Yuchen Zhao, Brandy Pettijohn, Amanda Y. Wang, Danielle Keehn, Angela Dai, Joy Dang, J. Murray","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00377","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The Pickrick Protests is a project exploring the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to recreate a sequence of Civil Rights--era incidents that occurred at the Pickrick restaurant, in Atlanta, over a period of 8 months in 1964–1965. This project gives a connected and chronological narrative of the historic events to form a cohesive experience, with AR projections of computer graphic depictions of the 1960s buildings, and events on the site where they happened. The objective of this project is to make the history of the Civil Rights Movement visible by privileging the perspective of the African Americans who fought for equality. This paper focuses on introducing the narrative design for this location-based AR application (Bowman et al., 1998). We will discuss our approach to creating a meaningful narrative within the technical affordances and environmental constraints of the AR medium and the specific location. The design challenges posed by this project were how to merge the virtual content with the existing, albeit changed, physical space; how to recenter the story on the activists rather than on the segregationist restaurant owner who went on to become a governor of Georgia; and how to direct attention in AR in order to allow interactors to follow a multiepisode narrative, and to focus on the nonviolent activists rather than the aggressive segregationists.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126209053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do Object Affordances Modulate the Sense of Embodiment in Virtual Human--Tool Interaction? Reflection for the Interactive Artificial Environment","authors":"Sara Ventura, A. Tessari","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00382","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Object manipulation is essential to build the surrounding reality, and affordances—the action possibilities offered by the environment—have a crucial role in human--tool interaction. Due to the exponential growth of the metaverse, a research question arises: Does the theoretical model behind the human--tool interaction also work in artificial reality? The present study aimed to investigate the difference in the sense of embodiment in human--tool interaction between usual and unusual objects in an immersive 360-degree video. The environment is a recording of a human arm that interacts with various tools on a table. Forty-four participants took part in the study, and they were randomized into two groups, usual or unusual objects, and in two within-participants conditions, reach to move or reach to use. Results showed no significant difference in the embodiment between usual and unusual objects, demonstrating that the ventral and dorsal streams may perfectly integrate information in the artificial environment as in the real world. Participants felt present in the virtual environment, as demonstrated by the factor location of embodiment, so they believed they could interact with any tools, independently of their affordances. The study contributes to understanding the mechanisms behind human--tool interaction in the artificial environment.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122576734","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Relationship between Immersion and Psychophysiological Indicators","authors":"Maxence Hébert-Lavoie, B. Ozell, P. Doyon-Poulin","doi":"10.1162/pres_a_00390","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00390","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Psychophysiological indicators have garnered significant interest in the assessment of presence. However, despite this interest, the nature of the relationship between psychophysiological indicators and presence factors remains undetermined. Presence, the perceived realness of a mediated or virtual experience, is modulated by two factors: immersion and coherence. Immersion represents the extent and precision of the simulated sensory modalities, while coherence refers to the environment's ability to behave as expected by the user. To study the relationship between psychophysiological indicators and presence factors, we objectively manipulated immersion by altering three visual qualities. The visual qualities were set to values above, at, or below their functional threshold. These thresholds are defined as a perceptual boundary under which a sensory quality value should be considered functionally degraded. Sixty participants performed a driving task in a virtual environment under the aforementioned conditions, while we measured their cardiovascular and eye responses. We found that degraded immersion conditions yielded significantly different psychophysiological indicator results than the condition without degradation. However, we observed an effect of immersion degradation on our measured variables only when the visual conditions were set below the functional threshold. Manipulations of immersion below the functional threshold introduced unreasonable circumstances which modified our participants' behavior. Thus, our findings suggest a direct impact of immersion on coherence and highlight the sensitivity of psychophysiological indicators to the coherence of a virtual environment. These results have theoretical implications, as a presence concepts relationship model should include the direct impact of immersion on coherence.","PeriodicalId":364270,"journal":{"name":"PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130306517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}