I Know It Is Not Real (And That Matters) Media Awareness vs. Presence in a Parallel Processing Account of the VR Experience

Abstract

Inspired by the widely recognized idea that in VR, not only presence but also encountered plausibility is relevant (Slater, 2009), we propose a general psychological parallel processing account to explain users' VR and XR experience. The model adopts a broad psychological view by building on interdisciplinary literature on the dualistic nature of perceiving and experiencing (mediated) representations. It proposes that perceptual sensations like presence are paralleled by users' media awareness or their belief that "this is not really happening." We review the developmental underpinnings of media awareness, and argue that it is triggered in users’ voluntarily exposure to VR, as well as by encountered sensory and semantic (in)consistencies. Our account sketches media awareness and presence as two parallel processes that together define a situation as a media exposure situation. We discuss how both might mutually influence each other. We also review potential joint effects on subsequent psychological responses that characterize the user experience. We conclude the article with a programmatic outlook on testable assumptions and open questions for future research.

Parasocial interactions with media characters: the role of perceived and actual sociodemographic and psychological similarity

“…In our study, viewers indicated their PSI with mostly fictional characters on Netflix. It is possible that age and sociodemographic similarities are less important with fictional characters than with real people (Hartmann and Hofer, 2021). Overall, these findings challenge existing literature, as mostly, similar demographic background did not increase viewer PSI in these everyday viewing settings.…”

The impact of task workload on cybersickness

“…Willing suspension of disbelief allows for readers, or in our case VR users, to interpret experiences as closer to reality than they are. More recent work has discussed the concept of "media awareness" (awareness that the experience is media and not real) and suggested that media awareness and presence work together to define a simulated experience (Hartmann and Hofer, 2021). This idea may give insight into why users' previous experience with VR or previous video game experience has been shown to negatively correlate with reported cybersickness (e.g., Freitag et al, 2016).…”