18 research outputs found
Extending the Explanandum: A Commentary on Andy Clark
In this commentary, I suggest that the predictive processing framework (PP) might be applicable to areas beyond those identified by Clark. In particular, PP may be relevant for our understanding of perceptual content, consciousness, and for applied cognitive neuroscience. My main claim for each area is as follows:PP urges an organism-relative conception of perceptual content.Historical a priori accounts of the structure of perceptual experience converge with results from PP. There are a number of areas in which PP can find important practical applications, including education, public policy, and social interaction
Sounds too true to be good: diegetic infidelityâthe case for sound in virtual reality
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in
Journal of Media Practice following peer review. The version of record McArthur, A., et al. (2017). "Sounds too true to be good: diegetic infidelity â the case for sound in virtual reality." Journal of Media Practice 18(1): 26-40. is available online at:https://doi.org/10.1080/14682753.2017.1305840© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Cinematic virtual reality (VR) elicits new possibilities for the treatment of sound in space. Distinct from screen-based practices of filmmaking, diegetic soundâimage relations in immersive environments present unique, potent affordances, in which content is at once imaginary, and real. However, a reductive modelling of environmental realism, in the name of âpresenceâ predominates. Yet cross-modal perception is a noisy, flickering representation of worlds. Treating our perceptual apparatus as stable, objective transducers, ignores the inter-subjective potential at the heart of immersive work, and situates users as passive spectators. This condescends to audiences and discounts the historic symbiosis of soundâimage signification, which comes to constitute notions of verisimilitude. We understand the tropes; we willingly suspend disbelief. This article examines spatial sound rendering in virtual environments, probing at diegetic realism. It calls for an experimental, aesthetic approach, suggesting several speculative strategies, drawing from theories of embodied cognition and acousmatic practice (amongst others) which necessarily deal with space and time as contingencies of the immersive. VR affords a development of the dialectic between sound and image which distinctively involves our spatial attention. The lines between referent and signified blur; the mediation between representations invoked by practitioners, and those experienced by audiences, suggest new opportunities for co-authorship.The authors wish to acknowledge support from the EPSRC and AHRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Media and Arts Technology through Queen Mary University of London
Extending the Explanandum: A Commentary on Andy Clark
In this commentary, I suggest that the predictive processing framework (PP) might be applicable to areas beyond those identified by Clark. In particular, PP may be relevant for our understanding of perceptual content, consciousness, and for applied cognitive neuroscience. My main claim for each area is as follows:PP urges an organism-relative conception of perceptual content.Historical a priori accounts of the structure of perceptual experience converge with results from PP. There are a number of areas in which PP can find important practical applications, including education, public policy, and social interaction
Wie real sind virtuelle RealitĂ€ten? Ăber Chancen und potenzielle Risiken von virtuellen RealitĂ€ten
Virtuelle RealitĂ€t (VR) wird derzeit vielerorts als âTechnologie der Zukunftâ beschrieben. Schon jetzt treffen VR-verwandte Technologien auf das Interesse der breiten Ăffentlichkeit, wie der bahnbrechende Erfolg von PokĂ©mon Go zeigt. Der Kognitionswissenschaftler Stephan de la Rosa (Max-Planck-Institut fĂŒr biologische Kybernetik in TĂŒbingen) erlĂ€utert in seinem Beitrag, was in unserem Kopf passiert, wenn wir uns in virtuelle RealitĂ€ten begeben und woraus sich der realistische Wahrnehmungseindruck ergibt. Auch vielfĂ€ltige Potenziale fĂŒr Wissenschaft und Therapie werden diskutiert, ohne eventuelle Gefahren unbeachtet zu lassen
Isness: Using Multi-Person VR to Design Peak Mystical Type Experiences Comparable to Psychedelics
Studies combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs (PsiDs) have
demonstrated positive outcomes that are often associated with PsiDs' ability to
induce 'mystical-type' experiences (MTEs) - i.e., subjective experiences whose
characteristics include a sense of connectedness, transcendence, and
ineffability. We suggest that both PsiDs and virtual reality can be situated on
a broader spectrum of psychedelic technologies. To test this hypothesis, we
used concepts, methods, and analysis strategies from PsiD research to design
and evaluate 'Isness', a multi-person VR journey where participants experience
the collective emergence, fluctuation, and dissipation of their bodies as
energetic essences. A study (N=57) analyzing participant responses to a
commonly used PsiD experience questionnaire (MEQ30) indicates that Isness
participants had MTEs comparable to those reported in double-blind clinical
studies after high doses of psilocybin & LSD. Within a supportive setting and
conceptual framework, VR phenomenology can create the conditions for MTEs from
which participants derive insight and meaning