The use of virtual reality in the study of people’s responses to violent incidents

Abstract

This paper reviews experimental methods for the study of the responses of people to violence in digital media, and in particular considers the issues of internal validity and ecological validity or generalisability of results to events in the real world. Experimental methods typically involve a significant level of abstraction from reality, with participants required to carry out tasks that are far removed from violence in real life, and hence their ecological validity is questionable. On the other hand studies based on field data, while having ecological validity, cannot control multiple confounding variables that may have an impact on observed results, so that their internal validity is questionable. It is argued that immersive virtual reality may provide a unification of these two approaches. Since people tend to respond realistically to situations and events that occur in virtual reality, and since virtual reality simulations can be completely controlled for experimental purposes, studies of responses to violence within virtual reality are likely to have both ecological and internal validity. This depends on a property that we call ‘plausibility’ – including the fidelity of the depicted situation with prior knowledge and expectations. We illustrate this with data from a previously published experiment, a virtual reprise of Stanley Milgram's 1960s obedience experiment, and also with pilot data from a new study being developed that looks at bystander responses to violent incidents.

Enhancing Our Lives with Immersive Virtual Reality

“…As pointed out by Rovira et al (2009), one of the problems in this area of research is that for ethical and practical reasons it is not possible to actually carry out controlled experimental studies that depict a violent incident such as that described in the opening paragraph of this section. This is very similar to the situation of the Obedience studies discussed above.…”

“…Also, the scenarios can be arbitrary rather than restricted to laboratory settings. Rovira et al (2009) pointed out how the use of VR in social science allows for both internal and ecological validity. The first refers to the possibility of valid experimental designs including issues such as repeatability across different trials and conditions, the precision at which outcomes can be measured, and so on.…”

Untitled

“…Thus, the sensation of presence makes up the subjective experience of a realistic response to virtually generated stimuli, that is, a response that would be identical if the stimuli were unmediated. Notably, Slater refined this theory of users' responses to VEs by suggesting that the sensation of being there is not the sole factor in determining whether an individual responds realistically to virtual stimuli (Rovira, Swapp, Spanlang, & Slater, 2009;Slater, 2009). Slater (2009) presented the hypothesis that this response-as-if-real can be ascribed to the simultaneous occurrence of not one but two perceptual illusions: the place illusion-the illusion that you are really there despite the sure knowledge that you are not-and the plausibility illusion-the illusion that the unfolding events are really happening in spite of the knowledge that they are not.…”

“…Specifically, the plausibility illusion occurs when the unfolding events are experienced as actually occurring, despite the certain knowledge that they are not (Slater, 2009). Rovira et al (2009) indicated that the plausibility illusion depends on the VE meeting at least three conditions: (a) The actions performed by the user must produce correlated reactions within the VE (e.g., a virtual character might avoid eye contact and step aside if the user stares or exhibits aggressive body language); (b) The environment should respond directly to the user, even when the user is not performing an instigating action (e.g., a virtual character might react to the presence of the user without the user initially approaching or addressing this character); and (c) The environment and the events occurring within it should be credible, that is, they should conform to the user's knowledge and expectations accrued through a lifetime of unmediated interactions. Slater's (2009) distinction between the place and plausibility illusion bears resemblance with Lombard and Ditton's conceptualization of presence as realism.…”

Actividad cerebral y métodos de enseñanza: estudio comparativo entre métodos

“…Su enfoque está relacionado con la transmisión de la información sin trabajar la capacidad particular del conocimiento previo. Promueve el memorismo, la pasividad y el academismo teórico (Agencia de la calidad de la educación del Chile, 2016;de Pro, 2012;Duit, 2003;Georgiou & Sharma, 2012;Jiménez, Abarca, Ramírez, 2000;López, 2015;Ocete, Carrillo, González, 2003;Parasuraman, Rizzo, 2007;Rovira, Swapp, Spanlang, & Slater, 2009;Sánchez-Vives & Slater 2005;Slater, Lotto, Arnold, & Sánchez-Vives, 2014). …”