“I'd like to be under the sea”: Contextual cues in virtual environments influence the orientation of idea generation

Associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being: the role of emotion regulation

Nature contact has associations with emotional ill-being and well-being. However, the mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully understood. We hypothesised that increased adaptive and decreased maladaptive emotion regulation strategies would be a pathway linking nature contact to ill-being and well-being. Using data from a survey of 600 U.S.-based adults administered online in 2022, we conducted structural equation modelling to test our hypotheses. We found that (1) frequency of nature contact was significantly associated with lesser emotional ill-being and greater emotional well-being, (2) effective emotion regulation was significantly associated with lesser emotional ill-being and greater emotional well-being, and (3) the associations of higher frequency of nature contact with these benefits were partly explained via emotion regulation. Moreover, we found a nonlinear relationship for the associations of duration of nature contact with some outcomes, with a rise in benefits up to certain amounts of time, and a levelling off after these points. These findings support and extend previous work that demonstrates that the associations of nature contact with emotional ill-being and well-being may be partly explained by changes in emotion regulation.

Boosting Creativity through Users' Avatars and Contexts in Virtual Environments-A Systematic Review of Recent Research

As an artificial space extended from the physical environment, the virtual environment (VE) provides more possibilities for humans to work and be entertained with less physical restrictions. Benefiting from anonymity, one of the important features of VEs, users are able to receive visual stimuli that might differ from the physical environment through digital representations presented in VEs. Avatars and contextual cues in VEs can be considered as digital representations of users and contexts. In this article, we analyzed 21 articles that examined the creativity-boosting effects of different digital user and contextual representations. We summarized the main effects induced by these two digital representations, notably the effect induced by the self-similar avatar, Proteus effect, avatar with Social Identity Cues, priming effect induced by contextual representation, and embodied metaphorical effect. In addition, we examined the influence of immersion on creativity by comparing non-immersive and immersive VEs (i.e., desktop VE and headset VE, respectively). Last, we discussed the roles of embodiment and presence in the creativity in VEs, which were overlooked in the past research.

Immersive Virtual Environments’ Impact on Individual and Collective Creativity

Abstract. This paper explores the recent advances in research concerning the impact of immersive virtual environments affordances on the expression of users’ creativity at individual and team levels. While the top virtual reality (VR) application areas are entertainment and gaming, simulation and training for professionals, research in the domain of the psychology of creativity and VR is advancing rapidly in Europe. Indeed, between 2014 and 2021, 72% of publications in this domain resulted from European research in diverse fields such as engineering, design, music composition, art-making, and so forth. These studies took advantage of advanced VR affordances, such as head and hand motion trackers to synchronize an avatar in real-time, live streaming of a video into a VR headset screen to create artwork, etc. Four main topics were explored: (a) new creativity techniques involving a virtual upgrade of traditionally used techniques, virtual sketching and prototyping, as well as sophisticated interactive virtual menus and motion tracking systems, (b) the right digital self-representation for enhancing creativity and the degree to which users identify with the “persona avatar” in the context of user-centered innovations, (c) the impact of physical and social virtual contextual cues on creative performance, and (d) the perception of virtual reality by creativity and innovation professionals. Our review confirms that VR supports greater creative performance at individual and collaborative levels as well as enjoyment and fun. However, as rich and varied as this literature has become, it presents major methodological limitations that should be addressed in future research.

User Experience in VR Fashion Product Shopping: Focusing on Tangible Interactions

It is necessary to focus on a VR environment centered on a tangible interaction (TI), which provides and interacts with the user experience (UX) with various sensational forms. Therefore, this study attempted to present UX evaluation items for VR fashion product shopping environment through focusing on the TI. In addition, the developed factors were evaluated for validity through empirical experiments and attempted to explore the possibility of using a VR shopping UX evaluation methodology. As a result of factor analysis of items related to VR shopping, six factors were extracted, and each factor was named as intention to use, playfulness, sharpness, telepresence, interactivity, and usability, respectively. As a result of a t-test for the difference in UX between immersive VR and non-immersive VR, it was found that there were significant differences in intention to use, playfulness, sharpness, and telepresence. As a result of performing a multiple regression analysis to analyze the effect of TI on the VR fashion shopping UX, it was found that interaction, playfulness, and telepresence are UX factors that are formed under the influence of TI in an immersive VR. In addition, intention to use, sharpness, telepresence, and usability were found to be factors experienced as an effect of TI in a non-immersive VR.