Revisiting the effect of quality of graphics on distance judgments in virtual environments: A comparison of verbal reports and blind walking

In immersive virtual environments, judgments of perceived egocentric distance are significantly underestimated, as compared with accurate performance in the real world. Two experiments assessed the influence of graphics quality on two distinct estimates of distance, a visually directed walking task and verbal reports. Experiment 1 demonstrated a similar underestimation of distances walked to previously viewed targets in both low- and high-quality virtual classrooms. In Experiment 2, participants’ verbal judgments underestimated target distances in both graphics quality environments but were more accurate in the high-quality environment, consistent with the subjective impression that high-quality environments seem larger. Contrary to previous results, we suggest that quality of graphics does influence judgments of distance, but only for verbal reports. This behavioral dissociation has implications beyond the context of virtual environments and may reflect a differential use of cues and context for verbal reports and visually directed walking.