Abstract
Virtual reality technologies, including head-mounted displays (HMD), can provide benefits to psychological research by combining high degrees of experimental control with improved ecological validity. This is due to the strong feeling of being in the displayed environment (presence) experienced by VR users. As of yet, it is not fully explored how using HMDs impacts basic perceptual tasks, such as object perception. In traditional display setups, the congruency between background environment and object category has been shown to impact response times in object perception tasks. In this study, we investigated whether this well-established effect is comparable when using desktop and HMD devices. In the study, 21 participants used both desktop and HMD setups to perform an object identification task and, subsequently, their subjective presence while experiencing two-distinct virtual environments (a beach and a home environment) was evaluated. Participants were quicker to identify objects in the HMD condition, independent of object-environment congruency, while congruency effects were not impacted. Furthermore, participants reported significantly higher presence in the HMD condition.
Highlights
The usage of virtual reality (VR) technologies, such as head-mounted displays (HMD)or projection-based systems, makes it possible to present its users with the virtual equivalents of environments they would encounter in the real world
The current study focuses on the impact of the degree of immersion of the utilized technology on congruency effects by comparing a head-mounted display-based VR presentation of the virtual environment to a desktop monitor-based presentation
The raw clustering results did not include any semantic weighting, but they could be interpreted as beach objects if they are in cluster 1, home objects if they are in cluster 2, and unclear category objects if they are in cluster 3
Summary
Projection-based systems, makes it possible to present its users with the virtual equivalents of environments they would encounter in the real world. A more immersive VR technology is thought to allow VR users to react to the computer-generated environment in a manner that is more consistent with their experiences and reactions in an equivalent real world environment [3,4]. These equivalent reactions include volitional, conscious acts and involuntary reactions of the autonomic nervous system, as well as perceptual processes [1]. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the question, whether well-established perceptual effects occur in virtual environments and whether their magnitude is impacted by the immersive quality of the utilized technology
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