The sense of agency in near and far space: where do we stand?

Feelings of responsibility and temporal binding: A comparison of two measures of the sense of agency

Sense of agency (SoA) is the sensation that self-actions lead to ensuing perceptual consequences. The prospective mechanism emphasizes that SoA arises from motor prediction and its comparison with actual action outcomes, while the reconstructive mechanism stresses that SoA emerges from retrospective causal processing about the action outcomes. Consistent with the prospective mechanism, motor planning regions were identified by neuroimaging studies using the temporal binding (TB) effect, a behavioral measure often linked to implicit SoA. Yet, TB also occurs during passive observation of another's action, lending support to the reconstructive mechanism, but its neural correlates remain unexplored. Here, we employed virtual reality (VR) to modulate such observation-based SoA and examined it with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). After manipulating an avatar hand in VR, participants passively observed an avatar's "action" and showed a significant increase in TB. The binding effect was associated with the right angular gyrus and inferior parietal lobule, which are critical nodes for inferential and agency processing. These results suggest that the experience of controlling an avatar may potentiate inferential processing within the right inferior parietal cortex and give rise to the illusionary SoA without voluntary action.

Recent advancements in memory research indicate that virtual reality (VR) experiences are more vividly memorized as compared to conventional laboratory events. In contrast to the latter, VR experiences are highly immersive, simulating the multimodality, vividness and inclusiveness of real-life experiences. Therefore, VR might enable researchers to identify memory processes underlying events which participants have actually experienced, in contrast to conventional on-screen experiences. To differentiate the electrophysiological correlates of memory processes underlying VR experiences as compared to conventional laboratory experiences, participants watched videos either in a PC condition or in a VR condition, followed by an unannounced recognition memory test. As hypothesized, we replicated the well-established theta old/new effect for the PC condition, but remarkably, this effect was absent in the VR condition. Additionally, the latter was accompanied by significantly lower alpha activity as compared to the PC condition. As increases in theta-band responses are related to top-down control on, and memory load during retrieval, the observed theta responses might rather relate to retrieval effort than to retrieval success per se. Congruently, higher alpha activity measured over occipital sensor areas in the PC condition reflect visually guided search processes within episodic memory. The VR condition comes in with lower alpha activity, reflecting immediate and effortless memory access. Hence, our findings indicate that the retrieval of VR experiences promotes autobiographical retrieval mechanisms, whereas recalling conventional laboratory events comes in with higher effort, which might not reflect the mechanisms of everyday memory.

This initial stage paper focuses on the Virtual Reality (VR) experience of the [pain]Byte ballet. The live and VR experience debut October 1st 2017, as part of the Brighton digital festival. Specifically, the development of the VR environment to compliment live performance by using the same choreography to create an option capture element of the VR story telling experience. Reviewing Virtual & Alternative reality gaming & storytelling works and the use of VR for chronic pain management (Chen, Win). Does the VR experience compare to that of the live theatre for the audience? The data visualisations and VR environment will be continuations of the Network Simulator, [data]Storm 2015. We are visualising and comparing the pain pathway system to that of a social network. Linking pain signals to viral/negative messaging for some of the visuals. The main purpose of the pieces links to how “we” present ourselves online, these better or veiled versions of ourselves. For chronic pain sufferers, this can be daily activity in the real world. The paper concludes by identifying some future directions for the research project. The Ballet: [pain]Byte is a data driven dance classical ballet performance and VR (virtual reality) experience. [pain]Byte, is about chronic pain and biomedical engineering, in particular the use of implanted technology - neuromodulation (Al-Kaisey et al). Using data as a medium for storytelling, what it means to be in chronic pain. The live augmented theatre and VR experience research focuses on how an audience’s exposure and understanding are impacted by the difference mediums used for [pain]byte.

The affordances of virtual reality (VR), including a strong sense of spatial and social presence, could make it a useful tool to improve learning and social connection in remote learning, yet little research has examined its effectiveness in authentic learning environments. This mixed-methods case study of a remote Master’s in Education course asked how using VR repeatedly and with varying implementations impacted students’ learning, and how synchronized or shared experiences in VR impacted their sense of community. Students completed weekly surveys of their sense of presence in VR applications, sense of class community, and learning experience, and also participated in a post-course interview. Surveys revealed students’ sense of presence remained high over time, indicating little evidence of a “novelty effect,” but that it varied based on features of the VR applications. Interview results pointed to students’ increased mastery of the technology and its affordances for learning, and highlight how connecting with classmates via videoconference while using VR can create a shared experience. Students’ sense of agency in VR emerged as an important consideration for learning design. These findings suggest fruitful ways to use VR to increase educators’ mastery of immersive technology and provide remote students a sense of shared experience and raise questions about the impact of VR implementation and instructional design in authentic learning environments to promote exploration and community.

This co-design study examined salutogenic potential of mobile virtual reality (VR) experiences as an alternative to participation in a community-based symphonic engagement program (B Sharp), previously found to benefit people with dementia (PWD) and their informal caregivers. Six focus groups were conducted with sixteen adults aged 76–90; three participants had dementia, and two were informal spousal caregivers. No participants had prior VR experience. The study assessed the feasibility of replicating the community-based-arts program in VR, with the goal of enhancing its salutogenic qualities (e.g., positive distraction, engagement, and social connection). Video-recordings of participants while using a mobile head-mounted display (HMD) were analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis to compare perceptions of different virtual experiences, including replication or enhancement of B Sharp and a campus tour. Findings suggest participants had positive perceptions of enhanced VR experiences with no adverse effects, although PWD were less enthusiastic and HMD usability was complicated by eyewear use and comfort with technology. Participants reacted most favorably to the enhanced symphonic experience, where they were “virtually” onstage during the performance, suggesting unique experiences beyond what is possible in the real world have the greatest potential for deep immersion for older adults. Results suggest VR has strong potential to replicate and enhance salutogenic qualities of community-based programming by enabling greater access to experiences for older adults and by increasing enjoyment and engagement through experiences not otherwise feasible. Furthermore, this study illuminates advantages of a user-centered, co-design approach when developing VR experiences with community partners and older adults.

Every Virtual Reality (VR) experience has to end at some point. While there already exist concepts to design transitions for users to enter a virtual world, their return from the physical world should be considered, as well, as it is a part of the overall VR experience. We call the latter outro-transitions. In contrast to offboarding of VR experiences, that takes place after taking off VR hardware (e.g., HMDs), outro-transitions are still part of the immersive experience. Such transitions occur more frequently when VR is experienced periodically and for only short times. One example where transition techniques are necessary is in an auditorium where the audience has individual VR headsets available, for example, in a presentation using PowerPoint slides together with brief VR experiences sprinkled between the slides. The audience must put on and take off HMDs frequently every time they switch from common presentation media to VR and back. In a such a one-to-many VR scenario, it is challenging for presenters to explore the process of multiple people coming back from the virtual to the physical world at once. Direct communication may be constrained while VR users are wearing an HMD. Presenters need a tool to indicate them to stop the VR session and switch back to the slide presentation. Virtual visual cues can help presenters or other external entities (e.g., automated/scripted events) to request VR users to end a VR session. Such transitions become part of the overall experience of the audience and thus must be considered. This paper explores visual cues as outro-transitions from a virtual world back to the physical world and their utility to enable presenters to request VR users to end a VR session. We propose and investigate eight transition techniques. We focus on their usage in short consecutive VR experiences and include both established and novel techniques. The transition techniques are evaluated within a user study to draw conclusions on the effects of outro-transitions on the overall experience and presence of participants. We also take into account how long an outro-transition may take and how comfortable our participants perceived the proposed techniques. The study points out that they preferred non-interactive outro-transitions over interactive ones, except for a transition that allowed VR users to communicate with presenters. Furthermore, we explore the presenter-VR user relation within a presentation scenario that uses short VR experiences. The study indicates involving presenters that can stop a VR session was not only negligible but preferred by our participants.

Activities-based virtual reality experience for better audience engagement

Immersive virtual reality is increasingly used to treat chronic pain. Commercial virtual reality experiences offer a way to integrate immersive virtual reality into clinical practice, but selecting appropriate virtual reality experiences for specific patient goals is challenging. We developed the Virtual Reality Activity Analysis for Pain to help occupational therapy professionals assess virtual reality experience physical, sensory, mental, and psychosocial components relevant to chronic pain treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the interrater reliability of the virtual reality activity analysis for pain instrument. Raters assessed 10 virtual reality experiences using the virtual reality activity analysis for pain instrument, which includes 30 items across physical, sensory, mental, and psychosocial categories. We conducted 40 measurements per item and compared them using inter-class correlation coefficients. The virtual reality activity analysis for pain demonstrated excellent interrater reliability (inter-class correlation coefficients = 0.91), with four out of five sections and 55% of items showing good to excellent reliability. Only 16% of items exhibited poor reliability. The virtual reality activity analysis for pain is a reliable tool for analyzing virtual reality experience characteristics, with potential to standardize reviews of commercially available virtual reality experiences, aiding occupational therapy professionals to implement immersive virtual reality into chronic pain management.

Aim/Purpose: This article presents a comprehensive rubric for evaluating educational virtual reality experiences for mobile devices. The aim of this article is to systematically analyze research to address the quality of virtual reality experiences on mobile applications in order to extend the work of Lee and Cherner (2015) and their instructional application rubric. Background: Ratings in proprietary mobile application stores – The App Store and Google Play, etc. – are generic and do not provide meaningful evaluations of the virtual reality. This article utilizes research in the areas of virtual reality and education to present a comprehensive rubric for evaluating educational virtual reality for mobile applications, which continues to advance previously published, research-based rubrics. Methodology: The methodology uses a systematic process that spans multiple stages. The first stage was to locate pre-existing rubrics for virtual reality, followed by a review of literature focused on it. The third stage was to develop and vet a research-supported rubric for evaluating educational virtual reality. Contribution: The main contribution from this article is that it fills a gap in the literature by presenting a criterion-referenced, research-supported rubric for evaluating the quality of educational virtual reality for mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and app-connected goggles). Findings: This paper’s findings include the domains, dimensions, and criterion-referenced Likert scale indicators in the form of rubric dimensions for evaluating educational virtual reality. The evaluative domains consist of (1) Positioning of the EduVR, (2) Avatar Level, (3) Virtual Environment, and (4) Virtual Experience. Recommendations for Practitioners: This rubric is a tool for instructional coaches, teacher educators, and instructional technologists to use when recommending virtual reality experiences for instructional purposes. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can use this tool to monitor the quality of educational virtual reality being developed for classroom use. They can also use this rubric to examine educational virtual reality experiences they would use in their studies and evaluate how those educational virtual reality experiences impact student learning, engagement, and collaboration. Impact on Society: We foresee this rubric being an aid in the development, selection, and purchase of educational virtual reality by educational institutions, educators, researchers, edtech developers, and edu-philanthropists, thus advancing the quality and expectations for educational virtual reality experiences. Future Research: Future researchers can further enhance the validity of this rubric by collecting large amounts of data from a diverse set of end users and stakeholders. Also, subsequent rubrics for evaluating augmented reality and extended reality comprise additional research avenues.

Agency, or the capacity to take intentional actions, is considered one of the primary affordances of virtual reality (VR) for learning. VR is expected to increase learners' agency because it allows for full‐body interactivity from a first‐person perspective, giving them novel ways of interacting with the digital environment. Yet, agency in immersive learning has not been well‐studied relative to other affordances like presence, and more evidence is needed to understand how varied media and designs heighten or diminish agency. This mixed‐method study addressed this need by developing and validating measures of sense of agency with 30 high school students who used VR field trips in their engineering class over four lessons. By comparing immersive videos to video game‐like interactive graphical environments, the study illustrates some of the complexities of agency in VR. The findings indicate agency is not a unidimensional construct nor is it equivalent to full‐body interactivity in VR as learners felt some types of agency when using immersive videos. Furthermore, learners' identities moderated associations between the type of VR media and their sense of agency, and agency did not change over time as the novelty of VR waned. These results suggest VR designers should consider varied ways of interacting in VR that are beneficial for learning. They also support the use of immersive videos when the educator's goal is to increase agency over learning or focus, and provide measures and direction for future research to assess the relationship between varied types of agency, features of VR experiences and learning outcomes. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic Virtual reality (VR) can enhance learning by giving learners a strong sense of presence in the virtual environment and giving them agency over their learning through novel forms of interactivity. Many studies have looked at increasing the learner's presence in VR, but fewer have assessed learners' agency. Prior work found the impact of increased interactivity on learning was mixed: sometimes it increased learning outcomes and motivation, other times it did not. What this paper adds This study develops and validates measures of learners' sense of agency within VR learning environments. This study finds that more interactivity in VR increases how much agency learners feel over their actions but not necessarily their agency over learning and attention. This study also finds variation in students' experiences of agency based on their culturally defined sense of self‐construal. Implications for practice and/or policy Practitioners interested in immersive learning technologies should consider the design of the media used rather than focusing only on the device's capability. Immersive videos may be effective tools for enhancing student agency, depending on the aims of the learning experience. Designers and educators should consider learners' identities such as self‐construal, and understand student experiences may vary.

Virtual reality technologies have given rise to a new breed of space travel, enabling touring of cosmic environments without leaving the Earth. These tours democratize participation in space tourism and expand its itineraries – reproducing while also altering the practices of tourism itself. The chapter explores the ways in which they alter modes of establishing "authentic" tourism destinations and experiences, rendering outer space into a stage for the performance of space travel, while themselves facilitating novel avenues for its social organization and technological assertion. Virtual space tourism not only reflects the progression and metamorphoses in tourist practice and production but also has the potential to influence both the aspirations and prospects of our space futures. Keywords Virtual reality Experience Media technologies Touring Simulation Citation Damjanov, K. and Crouch, D. (2019), "Virtual Reality and Space Tourism", Space Tourism (Tourism Social Science Series, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 117-137. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1571-504320190000025007 Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited Copyright © 2019 Emerald Publishing Limited Introduction During 2016, NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida offered the public exclusive tours of Mars. Rather than launching its visitors into orbit and space-shipping them to the neighboring planet, its exhibition space was transformed into a Martian landscape. However, there was no rusty red dust covering the ground, the hazy pink skies did not appear overhead, and there was no sudden drop in temperature or atmospheric pressure. Instead, the room became part of the virtual reality (VR) installation Destination: Mars (2016). Visitors were individually fitted with a headset which enabled them to "walk into" a realistic 3D simulation of the red planet. Wearing the Microsoft HoloLens, they were able to experience an augmented or mixed reality in which a virtual rendition of imagery collected by the sensory apparatus of the Curiosity rover was overlaid upon the layout of the exhibition space, allowing them to experience the sensation of moving through an alien environment. This was enabled by the adaptation of software called OnSight, originally co-developed by Microsoft and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to support Curiosity's operations by aiding the rover's command in analyzing terrain and determining pathways. The sightseers followed Curiosity's tracks and were led through several Martian sites by a digital holographic projection of astronaut Buzz Aldrin and rover driver Erisa Hines from Jet Propulsion Laboratory; they toured the key scientific activities and discoveries that make it possible for the visitors to "be there." Through Destination: Mars terrestrial space tourists shared an "immersive" interaction with the landscape of another planet (see Chapter 2 for discussion of terrestrial space tourism). While unique, this experience of touring places in outer space from the Earth is becoming increasingly common; this VR attraction set on Mars signposts far wider developments in VR technologies, in the practice and production of tourism and in the nature of space travel. Destination: Mars is just one of the many virtual tours that feature outer space in their itineraries. There is an increasing host of VR packages that offer forms of tourism set beyond the globe. They span a range of destinations, proposing journeys across our solar system and beyond – from a 3D Virtual Tour of the International Space Station to StarTracker VR – Mobile Sky Map (2016), which enables its user to "dive into a 3D star field" (2016, n.p.). Generated from the imagery and data gathered through the enterprise of space exploration, these tours combine diverse virtual interfaces with equipment such as goggles and headsets, wands, data gloves, and head-mounted displays to provide immersive simulations of environments in which to move, see, and interact with virtual artefacts. A range of them can be accessed through desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and gaming consoles at home or while on move. Others are presented at public forums for group experiences such as Destination: Mars, or Lockheed Martin's Mars Experience (2017), which transformed a school bus into a setting for a trip to Mars, its windows acting as the screens through which to experience a virtual journey on the red planet. Increasingly "out there" in their varied forms, these virtual tours not only register a popular interest in outer space, but also suggest the emergence of a distinct form of space tourism – one which harnesses the intermediation of technologies, the synthesizing possibilities of VR, and our collective aspiration toward outer space. The proliferation of these remote space tours emerges from ongoing developments in VR technologies. Since hesitant beginnings in the late twentieth century, VR technology has grown significantly in scale. Advances in hardware and software – in particular the rise of affordable domestic headsets such as Google Cardboard, Microsoft HoloLens, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, and Oculus Rift – have brought VR to the masses, providing what they describe as "fully immersive" experiences "with realistic graphics, directional audio and HD haptic feedback" (HTC Vive, n.d., n.p.). Propelled by ever-present market forces, the consumption of virtual realities has become an everyday activity for many, with "reaches far beyond gaming and entertainment" (Scolaro, 2016, n.p.), and it is anticipated that consumer spending on VR will grow from "$108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion worldwide by 2020" (Ewalt, 2015, n.p.). The virtual tour has thus far emerged as one of the most noteworthy and popular forms of VR application; tourism industries themselves increasingly incorporate them in order to market their products, to inspire consumers, and to enhance their experience of certain destinations. However, VR is used not only as a means of attracting visitors to museums, galleries, noteworthy places and panoramas, or particular hotels and resorts, but also as a form of tourism itself. Its purview is to give a preview of a destination, and also to enable an intrinsic kind of "armchair" travel. VR tours have increased not only the overall numbers of those who can be considered "tourists", but also the display of destinations exponentially – their synthetic worlds now even take the users to locations that they would otherwise be unable to visit, places which are expensive, dangerous, or impossible to reach. It is no surprise, then, that outer space is one of the key directions being taken by the evolving courses of virtual tourism. It is an inhuman environment, financially and logistically inaccessible to most, and thus far very few have toured it. Set in outer space, the VR tour promises the experience of traveling its expanses while never leaving the Earth. As a means of exploring the cosmos, it might thus also indicate the evolution of space travel, in general, and of space tourism in particular. The design of these armchair tours emerges from transactions between the hard-science and creative industries which gather around the exotica of outer space to provide novel, virtual modes of its exploration. VR technologies are prominently used for astronaut-training simulations and a range of space activities such as scientific research, planning, and aerospace engineering. For example, a HoloLens aboard the ISS is used to "provide virtual aid to astronauts" (NASA, 2015, n.p.), augmenting procedures with holographic images superimposed onto objects the astronaut is interacting with and allowing those on the Earth to "see from an astronaut's point-of-view and send them drawings and other visual instructions on how to complete tasks" (Franzen, 2016, n.p.). NASA has developed various VR applications designed to advance and bolster space endeavors, such as systems that assist "scientists in planning rover drives and even holding meetings on Mars" and make "studying Martian geology as intuitive as turning your head and walking around" (NASA, 2017a, 2017b, n.p.). These virtual advances in outer space are increasingly finding their way into public culture. Destination: Mars (2016), for instance, was not only adapted from the VR set-up used in Mars operations, but after its time as an attraction in Florida, it was further re-developed into a freely available application – Access Mars: A WebVR Experiment (2017), which now allows "anyone with an Internet connection [to] take a guided tour of what […] scientists experience" (NASA, 2017a, 2017b, n.p.). Part of an interest in outer space and its exploration more broadly – transposed from the fields of science to the marketplace – such products have, in other words, opened up the cosmos as a public tourist domain. Combining educational and entertainment content with the novelty of virtual environments, they contribute to the gradual domestication of outer space and the socialization of its exploration – moving space tourism from the province of the very few, into the realm of the masses. VR tours set in outer space are the outcome of ongoing innovations in informatics, media, and communication technologies that have been profoundly altering the domain of tourism. Facilitating the production, circulation, and consumption of tourist sights and experiences, these developments have not only complemented, but also increasingly constituted, the registers of travel. These technologic conditions have created a situation in which tourist experiences are no longer only contained within classic modes of travel but also exist as an experience of "simulated mobility through the incredible fluidity of multiple signs and electronic images" (Urry, 1995, p. 148). As part of this, VR augments tourism. The VR experience is equated with tourist experiences, contributing to a more general movement which conflates real and representational spaces, meaning places are not "fixed or given", but "emerge as 'tourist places'" when they are "assembled" or "produced through networked mobilities of capital, persons, objects, signs and information" – as "places to play" (Urry & Larsen, 2011, p. 119). At the same time, VR tours of space extend the arena of tourism beyond the confines of the globe, affording the experience of space travel for all. As part of the new socio-spatial interface that complicates distinctions between home and away, the presence and the absence, authentic and staged (Hannam, Butler, & Paris, 2014), they amplify the metamorphoses that technologic advances have conferred upon tourist modes and suggest the prospective forms they may take. The effects of VR space tourism are many and varied, and their repercussions are yet to be established. VR itself is still an emerging medium, and extraterrestrial tours still an undeveloped manner of travel. However, our primary aim in this chapter is to review the recent and current forms of virtual space tours in their nascent stages, to chart their proliferation and growing sophistication by providing examples of their different manifestations, emphases, and the range of locations they include in their itineraries. We consider how these synthetic spaces transpose the practice of touring into outer space, explore how virtual space travel might influence the constitution of our "touristic" disposition, and suggest some of the changes that VR space tours appear to introduce into the broad motivations undergirding our desire to "go beyond." Outlining the range of "immersive" experiences offered to VR space tourists, we suggest that this medium not only appears to widen the stage upon which we are able to perform the role of tourist – elongating its acquisitive gaze and complicating its prerequisites of physical presence – but also contributes to the greater mapping of outer space as a tourist site. We close with a brief consideration of the potential limitations and future possibilities of virtual tourism in outer space, reflecting upon the ways in which these tours technologically extend the tourist into the spectacle of space exploration as well as reveal a social and organizational capacity to influence the direction of space tourism and also our collective aspirations in outer space – to determine, in other words, the very conditions of how we approach, arrange, conquer, or acquire, new places to travel. Virtual Reality Experiences of Space Tourism Accelerations of interest and investment in progressing the itineraries of space tourism and the capacity and applications of VR technologies have rendered outer space into an infinitively travelable site. While the journeys of the very few tourists who have ventured beyond the globe have consisted mostly of visits to the ISS, the affordances of VR are permitting space travel into myriad other destinations, supplying tours of popular celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars or more exotic locations such as the planet "40 light years away" featured in NASA VR: On the Surface of Planet TRAPPIST-1d (2017, n.p.). VR technologies have the potential to change not only the entertainment industries, information consumption, and the mobility of the masses, but also the way we interact with the world. If on the Earth, virtual travel enables "transcending geographical and often social distance through information and communications technology" (Szerszynski & Urry, 2006, p. 116), set in outer space, it "transcends" the terrestrial geographies of this world, redefining the ambits of tourism and our relationship with outer space. VR space tours compound the novelties of a virtual environment and space travel; this amalgam, in which both form and content appear new and different, gives birth to a tourist who is part of a "culture of flows" and the hybrid "spaces of 'in-betweenness'" (Rojek & Urry, 1997, p. 11). However, the question that continues to undergird "virtual tourism" (and the idea of simulated travel and movement more generally) concerns the authenticity of the experience itself; as a setting, outer space only further complicates this uncertain and undecided purview. What we know of the experience of space travel can only be garnered from the limited records of people who can claim first-hand experience, but what we do know of outer space is that it is essentially an inhuman environment, a place in which our presence is both restricted to temporary sojourns and necessarily sustained by technology, where all humans are in effect tourists. By crafting an interpretation of outer space based upon the wealth of techno-scientific data generated through its observation and exploration, VR tours strive to simulate a realistic sense of presence "out there", attempting to bring their audiences as closely as possible to the cosmos without having to leave the Earth. But there are limits to this, and there are as yet no "genuine" replications of inhuman space environments as VR experiences. While a VR gaming simulation like Adr1ft (2016) might realistically recreate the "nauseating" and enclosed sensation of floating in zero gravity in a spacesuit, it disregards most of the physics and atmospheric effects of outer space – which ultimately undercuts the illusion of real presence that it sets out to establish. Similarly, Destination: Mars (2016) makes it possible to "walk on Mars" in the steps of rovers without the need for oxygen or any thought given to the effects of radiation or a different surface gravity; the authenticity of the experience wavers at the realization that Mars is a place where we cannot be without technological artifice. Yet, it is perhaps also the realization of this utter reliance upon technologies that returns a certain authenticity to the prosthetic VR experience. While travel in outer space means surrounding yourself in a "bubble" of mediating technologies, touring in VR is an immersion in a technologically created digital environment. In this sense, VR technology could be a suitable substitute for real space travel; technological necessity makes the experience of one continuous with the other. That said, VR space tours are nonetheless consistently concerned with their own presentation or performance of a "real" experience. What the VR industry categorizes under the de facto term experiences are packaged and presented as interactive real-time simulations. For example, a variety of space apps offered through Oculus like Hello Mars (2017) and its rendition of the "7 minutes of terror" landing sequence "created strictly based on NASA's public data & research" (Oculus, 2018a), Solar System (2015) in which one "can almost feel the structure of distant planets and moons under the feet" (Oculus, 2018b, n.p.), or Discovering Space 2 (2017), which lets one "[e]xperience the mood and atmosphere of worlds far away from home" (Oculus, 2018c, n.p.) – are all (among many others) marketed as in some way "realistic" experiences. This authenticity is, however, produced through their design – the hardware and software that they rely upon becoming a necessary part of the equation, influencing questions of perception, imitation, and reality. These mimetic environments are increasing in sophistication, becoming more precise, more accurate, but also more able to trick the eyes and mind, and at the same time, they are becoming more accepted as legitimate sites of social practice and authentic interaction. If the "touristic consciousness is motivated by its desire for authentic experiences" (MacCannell, 2013, p. 101), then the consciousness of the VR tourist complicates our conceptions of what is authentic and reopens questions of what is "real" experience. It is an experience of travel that occurs only through the simulation of presence and interaction with a synthetic environment, and while tourists might these their experiences there will for be they perhaps for authentic experiences, and (MacCannell, 2013, p. While their authenticity might be (MacCannell, 2013, p. 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PurposeThis study explores tourists' virtual reality experiences during the transition to the Metaverse.Design/methodology/approachQualitative approach was employed to capture tourists' virtual reality experiences and knowledge of the Metaverse at two five-star hotels in Kusadasi (Republic of Turkey). The data were collected from Kusadasi using a purposive sampling technique. The research design focused on data collection with the structured interview technique. The interview form consisted of 7 questions in total, and a voice recorder was used to record the answers of the participants. After the first 4 questions were asked, the participants were presented a virtual reality experience with the virtual reality (VR) glasses. The interview was held face-to-face with thirty-five participants consisting of domestic and foreign tourists in two five-star hotels in the summer season of 2022. The collected data were analyzed with the content analysis technique and themes were created.FindingsThis study's findings enhance the conceptual capital in this emerging field and provide insights into many of the participants who have and have never experienced virtual reality applications and who are familiar and unfamiliar with the Metaverse as a concept.Research limitations/implicationsThis study generates empirical data that informs contemporary debates about virtual reality and the Metaverse.Practical implicationsThe findings show that most participants have never experienced a virtual reality application. Hotels and travel agencies should be aware of this new futuristic technology before the Metaverse transition. Metaverse is for generation Y and Z instead of Baby Boomers and generation X.Originality/valueThis study is unique in terms of depth and fills the gap as it provides useful insights regarding the evaluation of tourists' virtual reality experiences in the transition process to the Metaverse.

Virtual Reality (VR)’s unprecedented ability to virtually transport the user is purported to be its biggest strength. Yet, despite postulations about VR’s benefits as a tourism marketing tool; the concept of presence, ubiquitous in ICT and cyberpsychology research on immersive technologies, remains nascent in tourism literature. More importantly, researchers in the field have called for empirical studies focused on the determinants as well as consequences of presence, particularly in commercial environments. Existing presence literature has shown that both determinants and consequences of presence are not transferrable across contexts. Understanding the interplay of presence determinants is vital for optimising the technology’s utilisation in different contexts, especially for budget and development focus considerations. A VR experience developed for education or training purposes would have differing impacts and emphasis when compared to a VR experience developed for tourism marketing purposes. Thus, the objective of this project was to investigate the effectiveness of VR as a tourism marketing tool, anchored through establishing a framework encompassing the determinants (immersion, ecological validity, engagement) and consequences of presence on emotional response – an association that has been suggested in cyberpsychology studies. Using a mixedmethod randomised within-subjects experiment, 72 participants experienced computergenerated, fully synthetic virtual environments of a cruise ship. The experiences were administered across pictures, video, and VR. This thesis is structured as a series of three papers. Paper 1 was a critical review aimed at establishing the presence-emotion-intention conceptual framework. Through reviewing VR and presence literature across disciplines, the paper uncovered gaps in previous presence research, compounded by the fragmented and evolving approach to exploring presence. Methodologically, paper 1 revealed the lack of qualitative approaches to presence and VR research, informing the mixed-methods approach of this thesis. The literature review also highlighted that whilst VR research in tourism is growing, researchers have called for future studies to focus specifically on presence determinants. Quantitative findings were presented through Paper 2. Findings from this paper suggest that VR is significantly more effective than traditional media in evoking positive emotional responses to the stimuli. Theoretical implications include suggestions that fully-interactive synthetic VR may be more effective than 360° VR due to the significance of engagement as a presence determinant. Managerial implications include suggestions to focus on engagement mechanics, rather than chasing photo-realistic VR advancements, for impact on emotional response. Paper 3 presented qualitative phase findings. 36 participants were interviewed after experiencing all three stimuli. In terms of triangulation, similar results were found – participants associated the engagement and immersion presence determinants with increases in their positive emotional response as well as intention to visit the cruise. However, several unexpected themes emerged – the sense of agency and goal congruence that users associated with the levels of engagement that VR provided. Participants felt that being in control to see what they wanted, how they wanted, and when they wanted, positively affected their emotional response toward the stimuli and corresponding behavioural intentions toward the cruise. Several participants also attributed a positive shift in perception of cruising to the presence levels from VR, suggesting that the influence of higher presence was amplified for marketing enclosed, all-inclusive tourism products such as cruising or resorts. Theoretically, paper 3 introduced the association between engagement and sense of agency as a key component to the effectiveness of VR for marketing; previously unexplored. The findings also suggested the incorporation of dimensions from cognitive appraisal theory such as goal congruence into the presence-emotion framework from papers 1 and 2. Methodologically, the thesis overall highlights the importance and value of mixed-methods in VR research; traditionally heavily focused only on quantitative approaches. Practically, this thesis emphasises the focus on engagement and level of agency that marketers introducing VR should provide potential travellers. Users should be given a sense that they are in control and involved as an active participant to the virtual experience. As a whole, this thesis established a top-to-bottom presence-emotion-intention framework; a platform for future theoretical exploration and practical applications of VR in tourism and marketing. More importantly, the framework and insights from the papers in this thesis provide avenues for future VR research in tourism to focus on comparing differences in VR platforms, instead of against traditional media.

The bodily-self, our experience of being a body, arises from the interaction of several processes. For example, embodied Sense of Agency (SoA), the feeling of controlling our body’s actions, is a fundamental facet of the bodily-self. SoA is disturbed in psychosis, with stress promoting its inception. However, there is little knowledge regarding the relationship between SoA, stress, and other facets of the bodily-self. In four experiments manipulating embodied SoA using a virtual hand (VH), we examined (1) How is embodied SoA related to other facets of the bodily-self?; and (2) How is SoA impacted by stress? We found that increased alteration of the VH significantly decreased subjective ratings of SoA and body ownership (Exp. 1), supporting the close relation between SoA and body ownership. Interoceptive accuracy and SoA were positively correlated (Exp. 3), connecting awareness to one’s actions and cardiac signals. Contrary to our expectations, SoA was not related to trait anxiety (Exp. 3), nor did induced stress impair SoA (Exp. 4). Finally, we found a negative correlation between self-reported prodromal symptoms and SoA. These results strongly support the connection between SoA and the bodily-self. Whereas, SoA was not impaired by stress, and weakly related to psychotic symptoms.