The Utilitarian Virtual Self - Using Embodied Personalized Avatars to Investigate Moral Decision-Making in Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Dilemmas

Embodied personalized avatars are a promising new tool to investigate moral decision-making by transposing the user into the &amp;#x201C;middle of the action&amp;#x201D; in moral dilemmas. Here, we tested whether avatar personalization and motor control could impact moral decision-making, physiological reactions and reaction times, as well as embodiment, presence and avatar perception. Seventeen participants, who had their personalized avatars created in a previous study, took part in a range of incongruent (i.e., harmful action led to better overall outcomes) and congruent (i.e., harmful action led to trivial outcomes) moral dilemmas as the drivers of a semi-autonomous car. They embodied four different avatars (counterbalanced - personalized motor control, personalized no motor control, generic motor control, generic no motor control). Overall, participants took a utilitarian approach by performing harmful actions only to maximize outcomes. We found increased physiological arousal (SCRs and heart rate) for personalized avatars compared to generic avatars, and increased SCRs in motor control conditions compared to no motor control. Participants had slower reaction times when they had motor control over their avatars, possibly hinting at more elaborate decision-making processes. Presence was also higher in motor control compared to no motor control conditions. Embodiment ratings were higher for personalized avatars, and generally, personalization and motor control were perceptually positive features. These findings highlight the utility of personalized avatars and open up a range of future research possibilities that could benefit from the affordances of this technology and simulate, more closely than ever, real-life action.</p

Creating a Virtual Mirror for Motor Learning in Virtual Reality

Waltemate T. Creating a Virtual Mirror for Motor Learning in Virtual Reality. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2018

Playing With Embodied Social Interaction : A Thematic Review of Experiments on Social Aspects in Gameful Virtual Reality

Revision Published: 11 May 2022Recently, there has been a burgeoning of immersive virtual reality (VR) applications in a variety of shapes, including gameful social VR. Despite a longstanding tradition of studying social factors in gameful computing, this perspective in the specific experiences of VR is only gaining traction. This highly multidisciplinary area of interest is immensely complex with potential consequences on individuals and social groups alike. To aid in constituting and systematizing this area of research from the early days, this paper explores 14 state-of-art publications on experimental research of social aspects in gameful VR. These were analysed predominantly based on the included manipulations and the studied outcomes resulting in the extraction of five and seven thematic wholes, respectively. Finally, based on the findings, four broad avenues to consider were emphasized as suggested paths for a comprehensive future of embodied gameful social VR application and research across a variety of disciplines.Peer reviewe

Exploring Virtual Reality and Doppelganger Avatars for the Treatment of Chronic Back Pain

Cognitive-behavioral models of chronic pain assume that fear of pain and subsequent avoidance behavior contribute to pain chronicity and the maintenance of chronic pain. In chronic back pain (CBP), avoidance of movements often plays a major role in pain perseverance and interference with daily life activities. In treatment, avoidance is often addressed by teaching patients to reduce pain behaviors and increase healthy behaviors. The current project explored the use of personalized virtual characters (doppelganger avatars) in virtual reality (VR), to influence motor imitation and avoidance, fear of pain and experienced pain in CBP. We developed a method to create virtual doppelgangers, to animate them with movements captured from real-world models, and to present them to participants in an immersive cave virtual environment (CAVE) as autonomous movement models for imitation. Study 1 investigated interactions between model and observer characteristics in imitation behavior of healthy participants. We tested the hypothesis that perceived affiliative characteristics of a virtual model, such as similarity to the observer and likeability, would facilitate observers’ engagement in voluntary motor imitation. In a within-subject design (N=33), participants were exposed to four virtual characters of different degrees of realism and observer similarity, ranging from an abstract stickperson to a personalized doppelganger avatar designed from 3d scans of the observer. The characters performed different trunk movements and participants were asked to imitate these. We defined functional ranges of motion (ROM) for spinal extension (bending backward, BB), lateral flexion (bending sideward, BS) and rotation in the horizontal plane (RH) based on shoulder marker trajectories as behavioral indicators of imitation. Participants’ ratings on perceived avatar appearance were recorded in an Autonomous Avatar Questionnaire (AAQ), based on an explorative factor analysis. Linear mixed effects models revealed that for lateral flexion (BS), a facilitating influence of avatar type on ROM was mediated by perceived identification with the avatar including avatar likeability, avatar-observer-similarity and other affiliative characteristics. These findings suggest that maximizing model-observer similarity may indeed be useful to stimulate observational modeling. Study 2 employed the techniques developed in study 1 with participants who suffered from CBP and extended the setup with real-world elements, creating an immersive mixed reality. The research question was whether virtual doppelgangers could modify motor behaviors, pain expectancy and pain. In a randomized controlled between-subject design, participants observed and imitated an avatar (AVA, N=17) or a videotaped model (VID, N=16) over three sessions, during which the movements BS and RH as well as a new movement (moving a beverage crate) were shown. Again, self-reports and ROMs were used as measures. The AVA group reported reduced avoidance with no significant group differences in ROM. Pain expectancy increased in AVA but not VID over the sessions. Pain and limitations did not significantly differ. We observed a moderation effect of group, with prior pain expectancy predicting pain and avoidance in the VID but not in the AVA group. This can be interpreted as an effect of personalized movement models decoupling pain behavior from movement-related fear and pain expectancy by increasing pain tolerance and task persistence. Our findings suggest that personalized virtual movement models can stimulate observational modeling in general, and that they can increase pain tolerance and persistence in chronic pain conditions. Thus, they may provide a tool for exposure and exercise treatments in cognitive behavioral treatment approaches to CBP

Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments: the Egocentric Audio Perspective of the Digital Twin

The relationships between the listener, physical world and virtual environment (VE) should not only inspire the design of natural multimodal interfaces but should be discovered to make sense of the mediating action of VR technologies. This chapter aims to transform an archipelago of studies related to sonic interactions in virtual environments (SIVE) into a research field equipped with a first theoretical framework with an inclusive vision of the challenges to come: the egocentric perspective of the auditory digital twin. In a VE with immersive audio technologies implemented, the role of VR simulations must be enacted by a participatory exploration of sense-making in a network of human and non-human agents, called actors. The guardian of such locus of agency is the auditory digital twin that fosters intra-actions between humans and technology, dynamically and fluidly redefining all those configurations that are crucial for an immersive and coherent experience. The idea of entanglement theory is here mainly declined in an egocentric-spatial perspective related to emerging knowledge of the listener's perceptual capabilities. This is an actively transformative relation with the digital twin potentials to create movement, transparency, and provocative activities in VEs. The chapter contains an original theoretical perspective complemented by several bibliographical references and links to the other book chapters that have contributed significantly to the proposal presented here.Comment: 46 pages, 5 figures. Pre-print version of the introduction to the book "Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments" in press for Springer's Human-Computer Interaction Series, Open Access license. The pre-print editors' copy of the book can be found at https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/sonic-interactions-in-virtual-environments - full book info: https://sive.create.aau.dk/index.php/sivebook

How Foot Tracking Matters: The Impact of an Animated Self-Avatar on Interaction, Embodiment and Presence in Shared Virtual Environments

The use of a self-avatar representation in head-mounted displays has been shown to have important effects on user behavior. However, relatively few studies focus on feet and legs. We implemented a shared virtual reality for consumer virtual reality systems where each user could be represented by a gender-matched self-avatar controlled by multiple trackers. The self-avatar allowed users to see their feet, legs and part of their torso when they looked down. We implemented an experiment where participants worked together to solve jigsaw puzzles. Participants experienced either no-avatar, a self-avatar with floating feet, or a self-avatar with tracked feet, in a between-subjects manipulation. First, we found that participants could solve the puzzle more quickly with self-avatars than without self-avatars; but there was no significant difference between the latter two conditions, solely on task completion time. Second, we found participants with tracked feet placed their feet statistically significantly closer to obstacles than participants with floating feet, whereas participants who did not have a self-avatar usually ignored obstacles. Our post-experience questionnaire results confirmed that the use of a self-avatar has important effects on presence and interaction. Together the results show that although the impact of animated legs might be subtle, it does change how users behave around obstacles. This could have important implications for the design of virtual spaces for applications such as training or behavioral analysis

YOUTH PERCEPTIONS ON LEARNING IN IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY: DEVELOPING AND ASSESSING ESSENTIAL SOCIOEMOTIONAL SKILLS

This qualitative study investigated youth perceptions of educational virtual reality (VR) for developing socioemotional skills. A constructivist theoretical framework was utilized to guide the research design according to five key elements: learning in relevant settings, the social negotiation of learning, ownership in learning, multimodal representation, and metacognition. An exploratory case study approach was used. A grade 8 class of 28 students were invited to participate as the co-researchers for this study. The methods for data collection were semi structured artifact analysis, observations, surveys, and interviews. Research activities involved guided exploration of sustainability issues in AltspaceVR, collaborative painting in MultibrushVR, and an artifact contribution to a co-created learning experience in FrameVR. Empathy was the most predominant type of social-emotional learning (SEL) demonstrated by the co-researchers: Teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving skills were also evident. The youth exemplified new empathetic insights and activism for people, the environment, and animals based on their learning in immersive contexts. Findings indicate a rationale for educational VR to include SEL competencies, which VR excels at through its capacity for perspective-taking. The research activities within the virtual environments contributed to the co-researchers’ sense of social presence through open communication, affective expression, and group cohesion. Although the scholarly literature identifies personalized avatars as influential for enhancing social presence in VR environments, there was a lack of consensus on avatar value. The data collected in this study may serve as a basis for further research on understanding the capacity of educational VR to promote empathy and SEL in youth

Is it Real? An Exploratory Case Study of Empathy in a Virtual Game

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to determine what characteristics in a virtual game could motivate participants to feel empathy. Participants were invited to play an allegorical educational game that was staged with fictional fantasy characters in a simulated underwater endangered environment. The study design utilized was an exploratory case study to examine the participant responses to components of the game that had the potential for promoting empathy. The participants were educators attending a virtual conference in Second Life. Data collected included a questionnaire of avatar competency and experience, an Interpersonal Reactivity Inventory survey, and open-ended narratives. Results indicated that four conditions needed to be present in participants and the environment for empathy to occur: 1) if player participants had high competence and high experience in the virtual environment, 2) if they identified strongly with their avatar, 3) if the environment was designed with high realism, and, 4) if the topics in the game were relatable