The use of virtual reality in environment experiences and the importance of realism
Section snippets
The use of virtual reality in environment experiences and the importance of realism
Environmental experiences in field settings are likely to evoke stronger affective responses than surrogate experiences (e.g., photographs or video). However, it can be difficult to find suitable environments for controlled experimental research.
Virtual reality (VR) can be extremely useful for this type of research as it can be used to simulate environments when physical presence is not possible and allows environments to be customised (e.g., weather, or topography). LaValle defines VR as
Study One: comparing realism across different presentation methods
A hybrid field-laboratory experiment was conducted to examine affective responses and ratings of enjoyment after viewing a lake in the real world, in VR, and as a video. We expect that reported positive affect and serenity, as well as enjoyment, will be higher and reported negative affect will be lower after having experienced the environment in the real world, versus in VR, versus as a video. To further explore how the different presentation methods may have affected perceptions and
Manipulation check
A baseline affective measurement showed that generally participants felt moderate levels of positive affect (M = 31.63, SD = 5.21), as well as very slight or no negative affect (M = 11.56, SD = 2.28), and serenity (M = 12.94, SD = 2.41).
Post experience affective responses
To explore the experiences’ impact on affect, a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run comparing affective responses recorded directly after each of the three experiences.
While the data for positive affect were normally distributed, the
Study Two: testing the importance of realism within VR
A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine whether the level of realism of a virtual environment impacts recovery from a state of negative affect (stress). In Study Two, stress was induced via a writing task before participants experienced either a high or low realism version of a natural or built environment. We expect that improvement in affect will be greater in the high realism compared to the low realism environments and greater in the natural compared to the built environments. To
Cyber-sickness
Most participants did not experience any cyber-sickness symptoms (73%), with a total of 32 instances of sickness symptoms being reported, 27 of which were very slight or of little effect and five of moderate effect. For those instances, participants reported experiencing headaches, sweating, eye fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and disorientation. All symptoms were no longer present at the end of the experiment.
Presence
An independent samples t-test was run to see if there was any difference in presence
Discussion
Virtual reality (VR) is growing in use and has great potential for advancing scientific enquiry by enabling environmental control, manipulation, and accessibility. This paper explored whether the quality of the environment is important. Specifically, by testing different presentation methods (Study One: comparing real vs. 3D VR vs. 2D video) and different levels of detail (Study Two: comparing high vs. low graphical realism in the context of nature and built environments), this paper
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Author contributions statement
Newman, M.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualization, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Gatersleben, B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Wyles, K. J.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision.Ratcliffe, E.: Writing – Review & Editing.
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University of Plymouth School of Psychology, Drake Circus, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK.