Revisiting the pit room:the effect of the plausibility illusion in stressful virtual reality experiences

Abstract. The feeling of presence is an important factor to consider when developing virtual experiences. Understanding the aspects that contribute to presence can give us better ideas on how to design and implement virtual reality (VR) applications. Previous studies have shown that presence involves a person’s sense of being in a virtual environment (VE), and how genuine the events taking place there feel, often referred to as place illusion (PI) and plausibility illusion (PSI) respectively. According to previous studies, we need both PI and PSI to elicit realistic responses. This thesis is a pilot study that explores the impact of PSI on people’s realistic responses in a stressful VE by introducing an unrealistic event that breaks PSI while still maintaining PI. To achieve this, a pit-room experiment was implemented and the users’ physiological changes, specifically heart rate, were analyzed while performing an interaction task under two conditions: one with the unrealistic event (non-scary) and one without (scary). In both conditions, the participants were tasked to drop bottles down the pit, however, in the non-scary condition, the bottles would float in the air rather than drop to the bottom. A within-subjects study was conducted on 20 participants with 2 sessions each. Participants’ responses were recorded using electrocardiogram (ECG) devices and questionnaires. Although the findings didn’t produce significant differences between the two conditions, the physiological data presented a trend according to which the unrealistic event in the non-scary condition appeared to calm participants slightly. These results give further insights into the effects of PSI in a VE and provide a basis for conducting further confirmatory studies on this topic

Plausibility Illusion in Virtual Environments

Historically, research into subjective user experience in virtual environments has focused on presence, the feeling of "being there" in the virtual environment. Recently, Professor Mel Slater proposed that in addition to this feeling of being in the virtual space, researchers also need to consider the subjective feeling that the events depicted in the virtual environment appear real. He coined the terms Place Illusion (PI) and Plausibility Illusion (Psi), respectively, to refer to these subjective feelings. There exists a substantial amount of previous research applicable to PI, but very little regarding Psi. This dissertation fleshes out the concept of Plausibility Illusion by introducing new terminology, and reports on several experiments investigating the factors and effects of Psi. I demonstrate that Psi can be detected using existing presence measures, including questionnaires and physiological metrics. Of particular interest in these results is that factors contributing to Plausibility Illusion affected heart rate, with inconsistent behavior of the virtual environment leading to increased heart rate. I also demonstrate that study participants' individual differences affected how they interacted with a virtual environment, leading to different levels of Plausibility Illusion and, therefore, presence. I further demonstrate that, among the factors tested, the virtual body is the most important factor contributing to users' feelings of Plausibility Illusion, and that the coherence of the virtual scenario is the second most important factor. This shows it is feasible to determine a rank ordering of factors that affect users' sense of Plausibility Illusion in virtual environments, offering guidance to creators and developers.Doctor of Philosoph

Chapter 10: Game Literacy and Message Design

The popularity of video games with today’s learners requires that educators and instructional designers develop game literacy , or an understanding of game mechanics and design. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss game literacy within the context of instructional message design and to illustrate how video game designers apply and adapt principles of instructional message design to manage cognitive load through an immersive experience. These techniques include customizing the screen to display only necessary information and signaling changes in gameplay through sound cues and cinematic perspective. Game mechanics that foster germane load include tutorial missions and interface design. Similar to a narrative-driven video game, this chapter is divided into “quests” addressing cognitive load theory in video games. Completing each quest “unlocks” heuristics derived from both educational research and game design. The chapter concludes with a “Boss Battle” against research gaps and challenges, notably the expertise reversal effect in game-based learning

Design of virtual reality systems for animal behavior research

Virtual reality (VR) experimental behavior setups enable cognitive neuroscientists to study the integration of visual depth cues and self-motion cues into a single percept of three-dimensional space. Rodents can navigate a virtual environment by running on a spherical treadmill, but simulating locomotion in this way can both bias and suppress the frequency of their behaviors as well as introduce vestibulomotor and vestibulovisual sensory conflict during locomotion. Updating the virtual environment via the subject's own freely-moving head movements solves both the naturalistic behavior bias and vestibular conflict issues. In this thesis, I review elements of self-motion and 3D scene perception that contribute to a sense of immersion in virtual environments and suggest a freely-moving CAVE system as a VR solution for low-artifact neuroscience experiments. The manuscripts describing the 3D graphics Python package and the virtual reality setup are included. In this freely-moving CAVE VR setup, freely-moving rats demonstrate immersion in virtual environments by displaying height aversion to virtual cliffs, exploration preference of virtual objects, and spontaneously modify their locomotion trajectories near virtual walls. These experiments help bridge the classic behavior and virtual reality literature by showing that rats display similar behaviors to virtual environment features without training

The Gravitational Pull of Cuarón's Gravity

Film scholar Miguel Mera (2016) argued that Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (2013) was likely to generate a strong “gravitational pull” towards a broader exploitation of three-dimensional (3D) sound. In this article, the aesthetics of Cuarón’s work are compared to those in a number of other films. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s most recent films are presented as advocates of Cuarón’s film style, referred to here as immersive continuity. This approach makes constant use of long takes that are complemented by the immersive action of 3D sound. Moreover, it is observed that many other motion pictures in a variety of genres have made use of similar aesthetics, creating impressive three-dimensional sound designs. Through the examination of several Dolby Atmos titles, the author suggests that the screen-centrality of the cinematic voice is not as great a concern as previously thought. Ultimately, it is argued that conventional editing is now the biggest obstacle to achieving the mythical total cinema described by André Bazin.&nbsp

A comparative analysis of academic literacy specifications for a standardised test and academic literacy requirements for reading and writing in a range of disciplinary contexts

Includes bibliographical referencesStandardised testing gained prominence in the South African higher education sector in the last decade, largely as a means of providing information to identify students who might require additional academic support and for placements onto appropriate higher education programmes of study. This study explored academic literacy as a construct for standardised tests in comparison with the kinds of literacies required for reading and writing for various subjects across diploma programmes. The purpose of this study was to determine whether alignment between the academic literacy test specifications and reading and writing practices in and across diploma subjects would support the claim that generic standardised tests are appropriate for all subjects and fields of study. Theoretical approaches to standardised testing and academic literacies formed the backdrop to frame the study and analyse the findings. The multiple-case study approach was used to explore the reading and writing practices across various diploma subjects, using semi structured interviews and document analysis for data generation. The test specifications of a standardised test served as the interview protocol, as well as the analytic codes for interview and document data that were analysed by means of thematic coding and content analysis. The findings revealed two distinct content representations in different subjects, that is text-dominant and visual literacy-dominant orientations that influenced the practice and application of different literacies, academic literacy being but one of an array of literacies. Conclusions based on the data and findings suggest that while academic literacy as a construct is integral to knowledge acquisition in academia, disciplinary literacies have a profound presence and should be accommodated in standardised testing to ensure that what is tested resonates with subject literacies. It is argued that alignment of test specifications and reading and writing practices in subjects would render tests and test results valid for appropriate use

Foundation to Promote Scholarship and Teaching 2012-2013 Awards

Proposal abstracts of 2012-2013 award recipients in a wide range of disciplinary areas

Immersive competence and immersive literacy: Exploring how users learn about immersive experiences

While immersive experiences mediated through near-eye displays are still a relatively immature medium, there are millions of consumer devices in use. The level of awareness of the forms of the interface and media will vary enormously across the potential audience. Users might own personal devices or might encounter immersive systems in various venues. We introduce the term immersive competence to refer to the general practical knowledge and skills that users accumulate about how typical immersive interfaces work—the ways in which buttons are used, main locomotion techniques, etc. We then introduce the term immersive literacy to refer to awareness of how immersive interfaces are unique, when they might be appropriate, typical forms of media, etc. We sketch out how users develop competence and literacy with immersive media, and then highlight various open questions that are raised