Virtual Reality and its potential for evaluating warning compliance

Behavioral compliance is usually considered the best measure of warning effectiveness. Researching behavioral effects is difficult to carry out, however, due to concerns for safety, ethics, and high costs. Researchers cannot expose participants to real hazards while conducting a research. A realistic scenario that appears risky but that actually has no risk is expensive to conduct in terms of money, time, and effort. This article reflects on the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) as a technique to investigate warning effectiveness, particularly behavioral compliance. VR may help to overcome several key constraints that have limited warning compliance research, such as hazards actually being manipulated. This article focuses on two information-processing stages that will most likely benefit from VR: attention and behavior. Increasingly realistic VR can provide high-quality Virtual Environments (VEs) for use in warnings research. VEs can provide ecological validity and experimental control while limiting actual physical harm. Advantages and limitations are reviewed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[1]  David M. DeJoy,et al.  Consumer Product Warnings: Review and Analysis of Effectiveness Research , 1989 .

[2]  Thomas A. Dingus,et al.  Methodological Techniques for Evaluating Behavioral Intentions and Compliance , 1999 .

[3]  James J. Lindsay,et al.  Research in the Psychological Laboratory , 1999 .

[4]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  High Levels of Behavioral Compliance in a Realistic Product Assembly Task , 2000 .

[5]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Warning Compliance: Effects of a Video Warning Sign and Modeling on Behavior , 1992 .

[6]  Alan Lipschultz,et al.  Virtual Reality Technology, 2nd edition , 2004 .

[7]  Michael N. Louka.  Virtual Reality Tools for Emergency Operation Support and Training , 2001 .

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

[9]  Mark R. Lehto,et al.  Effectiveness of glue odour as a warning signal , 1995 .

[10]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Effectiveness of Warnings , 1987 .

[11]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Effects of Concurrent Cognitive Task Loading on Warning Compliance Behavior , 1999 .

[12]  Shamus P. Smith,et al.  Rapid prototyping a virtual fire drill environment using computer game technology , 2009 .

[13]  Thomas A. Dingus,et al.  Warning variables affecting personal protective equipment use , 1993 .

[14]  L Gamberini,et al.  Responding to a fire emergency in a virtual environment: different patterns of action for different situations. , 2003, Ergonomics.

[15]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Effects of Cost and Social Influence on Warning Compliance , 1989 .

[16]  Min-Sun Kim,et al.  Attitude-Behavior Relations: A Meta-Analysis of Attitudinal Relevance and Topic , 1993 .

[17]  Gregory Kramer,et al.  Sound and communication in virtual reality , 1995 .

[18]  Evangeline A. Chy-Dejoras.  Effects of an Aversive Vicarious Experience and Modelling on Perceived Risk and Self-Protective Behavior , 1992 .

[19]  Wendy A. Rogers,et al.  Warning Research: An Integrative Perspective , 2000, Hum. Factors.

[20]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Handbook of Warnings , 2006 .

[21]  Howard Rheingold,et al.  Virtual Reality , 1991 .

[22]  Yuan Luo,et al.  Simulation of Emergency Evacuation in Virtual Reality , 2008 .

[23]  Jonathan Steuer,et al.  Defining virtual reality: dimensions determining telepresence , 1992 .

[24]  G. Salvendy,et al.  Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries , 2009 .

[25]  Crystal L. Hoyt,et al.  Immersive Virtual Environment Technology as a Methodological Tool for Social Psychology , 2002 .

[26]  Grace M. Bochenek,et al.  Collaborative Virtual Design Environments: Introduction , 2001, CACM.

[27]  Jack M. Loomis,et al.  Locomotion Mode Affects the Updating of Objects Encountered During Travel: The Contribution of Vestibular and Proprioceptive Inputs to Path Integration , 1998, Presence.

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

[29]  Chin-Teng Lin,et al.  Assessing Effectiveness of Various Auditory Warning Signals in Maintaining Drivers' Attention in Virtual Reality-Based Driving Environments , 2009, Perceptual and motor skills.

[30]  David A. Kobus,et al.  Overview of the DARPA Augmented Cognition Technical Integration Experiment , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[31]  R. Nowak,et al.  Application of augmented reality to the industrial systems for signalisation of emergency situations , 2006, Symposium on Photonics Applications in Astronomy, Communications, Industry, and High-Energy Physics Experiments (WILGA).

[32]  Judy Edworthy,et al.  Extending Knowledge of the Effects of Social Influence in Warning Compliance , 2000 .

[33]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Using a Computer Simulated World to Study Behavioral Compliance with Warnings: Effects of Salience and Gender , 1997 .

[34]  Michael S. Wogalter,et al.  Increased effectiveness of an interactive warning in a realistic incidental product-use situation , 1995 .

[35]  Sang Joon Kim,et al.  A Mathematical Theory of Communication , 2006 .

[36]  Ganesh D. Bhatt,et al.  Bringing virtual reality for commercial Web sites , 2004, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[37]  Christopher D. Wickens,et al.  Display Signaling in Augmented Reality: Effects of Cue Reliability and Image Realism on Attention Allocation and Trust Calibration , 2001, Hum. Factors.

[38]  Ching-Yuan Lin,et al.  A virtual-reality-based feasibility study of evacuation time compared to the traditional calculation method , 2000 .

[39]  Daniel Västfjäll,et al.  Emotion and Auditory Virtual Environments: Affect-Based Judgments of Music Reproduced with Virtual Reverberation Times , 2002, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[40]  Kevin J. Williams,et al.  Behavioral Compliance: Theory, Methodology, and Results. , 2006 .

[41]  Chieh-Hsin Tang,et al.  Using virtual reality to determine how emergency signs facilitate way-finding. , 2009, Applied ergonomics.

[42]  Judi A. Ellis,et al.  Ecological validity and the real-life/laboratory controversy in memory research: a critical and historical review , 2004 .

[43]  M RagusaJames,et al.  Collaborative Virtual Design Environments , 2001 .

[44]  Michael Zyda,et al.  Praise for Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design , 2003 .

[45]  A. Kingstone,et al.  Cognitive Ethology: a new approach for studying human cognition. , 2008, British journal of psychology.

[46]  Daniel Thalmann,et al.  Stepping into virtual reality , 2008 .

[47]  Peter J. Werkhoven,et al.  Aiding orientation performance in virtual environments with proprioceptive feedback , 1998, Proceedings. IEEE 1998 Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium (Cat. No.98CB36180).

[48]  H. Lasswell.  The structure and function of communication in society , 2007 .

[49]  N. Clayton Silver,et al.  Consumer product warnings , 1997 .

[50]  C. Anderson,et al.  External Validity of “Trivial” Experiments: The Case of Laboratory Aggression , 1997 .

[51]  Mel Slater,et al.  Taking steps: the influence of a walking technique on presence in virtual reality , 1995, TCHI.

[52]  Cezary Rzymkowski,et al.  Assessment of Perception of Visual Warning Signals Generated Using an Augmented Reality System , 2007, HCI.