Behavioral and Physiological Methods

Virtual reality (VR) systems enable the user to feel as if they are present in a computer generated environment. But how do we determine the extent to which a user feels present in the virtual environment? This chapter examines three categories of methods commonly used for measuring presence; their use in the field, advantages, and disadvantages. Subjective measures rely on self-assessment by the user. Users answer questions such as "How real did the environment seem to you?", "Was the environment like a place you visited, or a series of images presented to you?". Behavioral measures examine actions or manners exhibited by the user that are responses to objects or events in the virtual environment. For example, does the user duck if a virtual object is thrown at his head. Physiological methods attempt to measure presence by gauging changes in the subject's heart rate, skin temperature, skin conductance, breathing rate, etc. In a stress-inducing virtual environment does the user exhibit physiological signs of stress? How do these methods compare when using the criteria of reliability, validity, objectivity, and sensitivity.

[1]  R. M. Yaremko,et al.  The orienting reflex to changes in a conceptual stimulus dimension , 1970 .

[2]  J. Andreassi.  Psychophysiology: Human Behavior and Physiological Response , 1980 .

[3]  J. Abelson,et al.  Cardiac and neuroendocrine responses to exposure therapy in height phobics: desynchrony within the 'physiological response system'. , 1989, Behaviour research and therapy.

[4]  W. Revelle,et al.  The implications of arousal effects for the study of affect and memory. , 1992 .

[5]  M. Bradley,et al.  Looking at pictures: affective, facial, visceral, and behavioral reactions. , 1993, Psychophysiology.

[6]  Arturo Carpi.  On Representation Systems , 1994, Int. J. Algebra Comput..

[7]  David W. Schloerb,et al.  A Quantitative Measure of Telepresence , 1995, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[8]  Mel Slater,et al.  The Influence of Dynamic Shadows on Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments , 1995, Virtual Environments.

[9]  Woodrow Barfield,et al.  Presence within Virtual Environments as a Function of Visual Display Parameters , 1996, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[10]  Matthew Lombard,et al.  At the Heart of It All: The Concept of Presence , 2006 .

[11]  John R. Wilson,et al.  Presence and Side Effects: Complementary or Contradictory? , 1997, HCI.

[12]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Telepresence via Television: Two Dimensions of Telepresence May Have Different Connections to Memory and Persuasion , 2006, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[13]  B K Wiederhold,et al.  The effects of immersiveness on physiology. , 1998, Studies in health technology and informatics.

[14]  D. Bouwhuis,et al.  Perceived depth and the feeling of presence in 3DTV , 1998 .

[15]  Michael J. Singer,et al.  Measuring Presence in Virtual Environments: A Presence Questionnaire , 1998, Presence.

[16]  Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Effects of Sensory Information and Prior Experience on Direct Subjective Ratings of Presence , 1999, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[17]  Thomas W. Schubert.  Decomposing the sense of presence : Factor analytic insights , 1999 .

[18]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Walking > walking-in-place > flying, in virtual environments , 1999, SIGGRAPH.

[19]  Neff Walker,et al.  Evaluating the importance of multi-sensory input on memory and the sense of presence in virtual environments , 1999, Proceedings IEEE Virtual Reality (Cat. No. 99CB36316).

[20]  Effects of field of view on performance with head-mounted displays , 2000 .

[21]  J. Freeman,et al.  Development of a New Cross-Media Presence Questionnaire: The ITC-Sense of Presence Inventory , 2000 .

[22]  Wijnand A. IJsselsteijn,et al.  Using Behavioral Realism to Estimate Presence: A Study of the Utility of Postural Responses to Motion Stimuli , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[23]  Mel Slater,et al.  Using Presence Questionnaires in Reality , 2000, Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments.

[24]  Matthew Lombard,et al.  MEASURING PRESENCE: A LITERATURE-BASED APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A STANDARDIZED PAPER-AND-PENCIL INSTRUMENT , 2000 .

[25]  Mary C. Whitton,et al.  Passive haptics significantly enhances virtual environments , 2001 .

[26]  F. Brooks,et al.  Physiological Reaction as an Objective Measure of Presence in Virtual Environments , 2001 .

[27]  In-Young Kim,et al.  10 An Investigation into Physiological Responses in Virtual Environments: An Objective Measurement of Presence , 2003 .