Impact of Virtual Embodiment on the Perception of Virtual Heights

Wolf, Eduard; Schüler, Thomas; Morisse, Karsten

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37869-1_17

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Previous work suggests that VR avatars capturing individual body characteristics, e.g., based on 3D body scans of the participant, can enhance the sense of presence and ownership (Waltemate et al, 2018). In general, a body itself is important for establishing a sense of presence (Slater, 2009;Slater et al, 2010a;Pan and Steed, 2019; but see also ;Steed et al, 2016;Wolf et al, 2020). Steed et al (2018) manipulated avatar visibility in VR and found that a visible avatar improved participants feeling to "be there" and to perceive the virtual environment as real.…”

Section: Relation Between Embodiment and Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

Why we Should Rethink Our Approach to Embodiment and Presence

Forster

Karimpur

Fiehler

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When interacting with objects in the environment, it feels natural to have a body which moves in accordance to our intentions. Virtual reality (VR) provides a tool to present users with an alternative virtual body and environment. In VR, humans embody the presented virtual body and feel present in the virtual environment. Thus, embodiment and presence frequently co-occur and share some communalities. Nevertheless, both processes have been hardly considered together. Here, we review the current literature on embodiment and presence and present a new conceptual framework, the Implied Body Framework (IBF), which unifies both processes into one single construct. The IBF can be used to generate new hypotheses to further improve the theoretical conceptualisation of embodiment and presence and thus, facilitate its transfer into application.

show abstract

Section: Relation Between Embodiment and Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

Why we Should Rethink Our Approach to Embodiment and Presence

Forster

Karimpur

Fiehler

2022

Front. Virtual Real.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The three-dimensionality instantly creates a strong sensation of height, triggering appropriate emotional and associated psychophysiological responses in most individuals. In other words, it is a proven, simple, almost classical way of eliciting stress responses in VR ( Asjad et al, 2018 ; Gromer et al, 2018 , 2019 ; Wolf et al, 2020 ; Kisker et al, 2021a ). Previous attempts to directly compare VR and physical reality used rather calming nature scenes with mixed results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The reality of virtual reality

Schöne

Kisker²,

Lange³

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Virtual reality (VR) has become a popular tool for investigating human behavior and brain functions. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether VR constitutes an actual form of reality or is more like an advanced simulation. Determining the nature of VR has been mostly achieved by self-reported presence measurements, defined as the feeling of being submerged in the experience. However, subjective measurements might be prone to bias and, most importantly, do not allow for a comparison with real-life experiences. Here, we show that real-life and VR height exposures using 3D-360° videos are mostly indistinguishable on a psychophysiological level (EEG and HRV), while both differ from a conventional 2D laboratory setting. Using a fire truck, three groups of participants experienced a real-life (N = 25), a virtual (N = 24), or a 2D laboratory (N = 25) height exposure. Behavioral and psychophysiological results suggest that identical exogenous and endogenous cognitive as well as emotional mechanisms are deployed to process the real-life and virtual experience. Specifically, alpha- and theta-band oscillations in line with heart rate variability, indexing vigilance, and anxiety were barely indistinguishable between those two conditions, while they differed significantly from the laboratory setup. Sensory processing, as reflected by beta-band oscillations, exhibits a different pattern for all conditions, indicating further room for improving VR on a haptic level. In conclusion, the study shows that contemporary photorealistic VR setups are technologically capable of mimicking reality, thus paving the way for the investigation of real-world cognitive and emotional processes under controlled laboratory conditions. For a video summary, see https://youtu.be/fPIrIajpfiA.

show abstract

“…Over the last couple of years, it has repeatedly been demonstrated that well-designed VEs are capable of eliciting strong emotional responses (e.g., Diemer et al, 2015;Felnhofer et al, 2015; for review see; Bernardo et al, 2020), that even keep up with their real-life counterparts (Higuera-Trujillo et al, 2017;Chirico and Gaggioli, 2019). For example, the exposure to great virtual heights evokes fear responses consistently across various setups as assessed by self-reports, psychophysiological and behavioral responses (Kisker et al, 2019a;Biedermann et al, 2017;Gromer et al, 2018Gromer et al, , 2019Wolf et al, 2020;Asjat et al, 2018). Accordingly, VR has gained great interest as an instrument for fear paradigms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authentic Fear Responses in Virtual Reality: A Mobile EEG Study on Affective, Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Fear

Kisker

Lange

Flinkenflügel

et al. 2021

Front. Virtual Real.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fear is an evolutionary adaption to a hazardous environment, linked to numerous complex behavioral responses, e.g., the fight-or-flight response, suiting their respective environment. However, for the sake of experimental control, fear is mainly investigated under rather artificial laboratory conditions. The latter transform these evolutionary adaptions into artificial responses, like keystrokes. The immersive, multidimensional character of virtual reality (VR) enables realistic behavioral responses, overcoming aforementioned limitations. To investigate authentic fear responses from a holistic perspective, participants explored either a negative or a neutral VR cave. To promote real-life behavior, we built a physical replica of the cave, providing haptic sensations. Electrophysiological correlates of fear-related approach and avoidance tendencies, i.e., frontal alpha asymmetries (FAA) were evaluated. To our knowledge, this is the first study to simultaneously capture complex behavior and associated electrophysiological correlates under highly immersive conditions. Participants in the negative condition exhibited a broad spectrum of realistic fear behavior and reported intense negative affect as opposed to participants in the neutral condition. Despite these affective and behavioral differences, the groups could not be distinguished based on the FAAs for the greater part of the cave exploration. Taking the specific behavioral responses into account, the obtained FAAs could not be reconciled with well-known FAA models. Consequently, putting laboratory-based models to the test under realistic conditions shows that they may not unrestrictedly predict realistic behavior. As the VR environment facilitated non-mediated and realistic emotional and behavioral responses, our results demonstrate VR’s high potential to increase the ecological validity of scientific findings (video abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qROsPOp87l4&feature=youtu.be).

show abstract

Impact of Virtual Embodiment on the Perception of Virtual Heights

Cited by 3 publications

References 25 publications

Why we Should Rethink Our Approach to Embodiment and Presence

Why we Should Rethink Our Approach to Embodiment and Presence

The reality of virtual reality

Authentic Fear Responses in Virtual Reality: A Mobile EEG Study on Affective, Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates of Fear

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About