Virtually the ultimate research lab

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) can serve as a viable platform for psychological research. The real world with many uncontrolled variables can be masked to immerse participants in complex interactive environments that are under full experimental control. However, as any other laboratory setting, these simulations are not perceived equally to reality and they also afford different behaviour. We need a better understanding of these differences, which are often related to parameters of the technical setup, to support valid interpretations of experimental results.

Stronger reactivity to social gaze in virtual reality compared to a classical laboratory environment

“…Critically, observing scenes in VR typically creates a sense of presence or being there in the scenario (Skarbez, Frederick Brooks, & Whitton, 2017), which is not the case when looking at depictions on a computer screen. Nonetheless, there is still only relatively scarce empirical evidence that social scenarios observed in VR really do elicit more natural modes of information processing (Kulik, 2018). Zimmer, Buttlar, Halbeisen, Walther, and Domes (2019) found comparable self-report, autonomic and endocrine stress markers in response to a standardized social stress test carried out by real or virtual conspecifics.…”

Understanding dual realities and more in VR

“…The question of what level of realism is appropriate for a particular research project is one that must still be tested empirically (Kulik, 2018) and defining these parameters is in itself an interesting research question which can be subject to psychophysical approaches (de Gelder et al ., 2018). In particular, it may be interesting to consider the role of both top‐down expectations (based on prior knowledge) and bottom‐up visual inputs in building our experience of a VR scenario.…”

“…Second, several commentaries raise the issue of the technical challenges involved in creating psychological experiments in virtual reality, in terms of realism (de la Rosa & Breidt, 2018;Kulik, 2018) and multimodal signal integration (Aglioti & Monti, 2018;de Gelder, Katsyri, & de Borst, 2018). The question of what level of realism is appropriate for a particular research project is one that must still be tested empirically (Kulik, 2018) and defining these parameters is in itself an interesting research question which can be subject to psychophysical approaches (de Gelder et al, 2018). In particular, it may be interesting to consider the role of both top-down expectations (based on prior knowledge) and bottom-up visual inputs in building our experience of a VR scenario.…”

“…To what extent are these different modes of experience similar or different, and to what extent can we generalize between them? de Gelder et al (2018) introduces the useful concept of dual reality, that is, the person experiencing a VR scenario, just like the audience in a cinema, experiences a range of stimuli which can induce rich characters and emotionally engaging stories which can suck their audience in to a different world (Kulik, 2018), even one of impossible situations (de la Rosa & Breidt, 2018). Despite this richness, the user knows that this experience is not 'real'; it is a secondary reality which can be discarded at will.…”

“…The second reason for considering VR in terms of dual realities relates to the practical question of making a good and valid VR experiment. In using VR for research in psychology, it is also important to know whether the way people respond in VR is the same as how they might respond in real life (Kulik, 2018), that is, does the VR world really engage the same cognitive processes as the real world? We suggest that further empirical studies will be the best way to test this.…”