As the metaverse expands, understanding how people use virtual reality to learn and connect is increasingly important. We used the Transformed Social Interaction paradigm (Bailenson et al., 2004) to examine different avatar identities and environments over time. In Study 1 (n = 81), entitativity, presence, enjoyment, and realism increased over 8 weeks. Avatars that resembled participants increased synchrony, similarities in moment-to-moment nonverbal behaviors between participants. Moreover, self-avatars increased self-presence and realism, but decreased enjoyment, compared to uniform avatars. In Study 2 (n = 137), participants cycled through 192 unique virtual environments. As visible space increased, so did nonverbal synchrony, perceived restorativeness, entitativity, pleasure, arousal, self- and spatial presence, enjoyment, and realism. Outdoor environments increased perceived restorativeness and enjoyment more than indoor environments. Self-presence and realism increased over time in both studies. We discuss implications of avatar appearance and environmental context on social behavior in classroom contexts over time.
After 20 years of teaching about VR, we finally taught in VR. This article describes lessons learned from 263 students who spent 10 weeks in virtual reality together and a total of 200,000 shared minutes "in headset."
The present research investigates the effectiveness of using a telepresence system compared to a video conferencing system and the effectiveness of using two cameras compared to one camera for remote physical therapy. We used Telegie as our telepresence system, which allowed users to see an environment captured with RGBD cameras in 3D through a VR headset. Since both telepresence and the inclusion of a second camera provide users with additional spatial information, we examined this affordance within the relevant context of remote physical therapy. Our dyadic study across different time zones paired 11 physical therapists with 76 participants who took on the role of patients for a remote session. Our quantitative questionnaire data and qualitative interviews with therapists revealed several important findings. First, after controlling for individual differences between participants, using two cameras had a marginally significant positive effect on physical therapy assessment scores from therapists. Second, the spatial ability of patients was a strong predictor of therapist assessment. And third, the video clarity of remote communication systems mattered. Based on our findings, we offer several suggestions and insights towards the future use of telepresence systems for remote communication.
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