Tracing Physical Behavior in Virtual Reality: A Narrative Review of Applications to Social Psychology

Assessing Bias Toward a Black or White Simulated Patient with Obesity in a Virtual Reality-Based Genomics Encounter

Interpersonal bias based on weight and race is widespread in the clinical setting; it is crucial to investigate how emerging genomics technologies will interact with and influence such biases in the future. The current study uses a virtual reality (VR) simulation to investigate the influence of apparent patient race and provision of genomic information on medical students' implicit and explicit bias toward a virtual patient with obesity. Eighty-four third- and fourth-year medical students (64% female, 42% White) were randomized to interact with a simulated virtual patient who appeared as Black versus White, and to receive genomic risk information for the patient versus a control report. We assessed biased behavior during the simulated encounter and self-reported attitudes toward the virtual patient. Medical student participants tended to express more negative attitudes toward the White virtual patient than the Black virtual patient (both of whom had obesity) when genomic information was absent from the encounter. When genomic risk information was provided, this more often mitigated bias for the White virtual patient, whereas negative attitudes and bias against the Black virtual patient either remained consistent or increased. These patterns underscore the complexity of intersectional identities in clinical settings. Provision of genomic risk information was enough of a contextual shift to alter attitudes and behavior. This research leverages VR simulation to provide an early look at how emerging genomic technologies may differentially influence bias and stereotyping in clinical encounters.

Examining the Proteus effect on misogynistic behavior induced by a sports mascot avatar in virtual reality

The Proteus effect is a phenomenon found in over 60 studies where people tend to conform behaviorally to their avatars' identity characteristics, especially in virtual reality. This study extends research on the Proteus effect to consider organization-representing avatars and misogynistic behavioral outcomes. Male participants (N = 141) in a lab experiment embodied a set of pretested avatars which varied in level of association with a university mascot (i.e., color and body type) in a bespoke virtual reality simulation designed to elicit misogynistic behavior. Namely, participants were directed to place a hand on virtual agents' body parts, including the buttocks (i.e., a transgressive misogynistic act). Time delay in complying with directions to touch the agents' buttocks served as an implicit measure of resistance to this misogynistic behavior. Results suggest that within moderately masculine body-size avatar users, those who embodied a university-color-associated avatar exhibited more misogynistic behaviors (i.e., faster buttocks-touching). Unexpectedly, this effect of avatar color was not apparent within the hypermasculine body-size avatars, and within the university-associated color condition, hypermasculine body-type was associated with less misogynistic behavior. These findings suggest that organization-representing avatars may induce behavioral conformity to implicit attitudes associated with the organization, such as misogyny.

Color constancy mechanisms in virtual reality environments

Prior research has demonstrated high levels of color constancy in real-world scenarios featuring single light sources, extensive fields of view, and prolonged adaptation periods. However, exploring the specific cues humans rely on becomes challenging, if not unfeasible, with actual objects and lighting conditions. To circumvent these obstacles, we employed virtual reality technology to craft immersive, realistic settings that can be manipulated in real time. We designed forest and office scenes illuminated by five colors. Participants selected a test object most resembling a previously shown achromatic reference. To study color constancy mechanisms, we modified scenes to neutralize three contributors: local surround (placing a uniform-colored leaf under test objects), maximum flux (keeping the brightest object constant), and spatial mean (maintaining a neutral average light reflectance), employing two methods for the latter: changing object reflectances or introducing new elements. We found that color constancy was high in conditions with all cues present, aligning with past research. However, removing individual cues led to varied impacts on constancy. Local surrounds significantly reduced performance, especially under green illumination, showing strong interaction between greenish light and rose-colored contexts. In contrast, the maximum flux mechanism barely affected performance, challenging assumptions used in white balancing algorithms. The spatial mean experiment showed disparate effects: Adding objects slightly impacted performance, while changing reflectances nearly eliminated constancy, suggesting human color constancy relies more on scene interpretation than pixel-based calculations.

Cognitive Effort during Visuospatial Problem Solving in Physical Real World, on Computer Screen, and in Virtual Reality

Spatial cognition plays a crucial role in academic achievement, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains. Immersive virtual environments (VRs) have the growing potential to reduce cognitive load and improve spatial reasoning. However, traditional methods struggle to assess the mental effort required for visuospatial processes due to the difficulty in verbalizing actions and other limitations in self-reported evaluations. In this neuroergonomics study, we aimed to capture the neural activity associated with cognitive workload during visuospatial tasks and evaluate the impact of the visualization medium on visuospatial task performance. We utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) wearable neuroimaging to assess cognitive effort during spatial-reasoning-based problem-solving and compared a VR, a computer screen, and a physical real-world task presentation. Our results reveal a higher neural efficiency in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during 3D geometry puzzles in VR settings compared to the settings in the physical world and on the computer screen. VR appears to reduce the visuospatial task load by facilitating spatial visualization and providing visual cues. This makes it a valuable tool for spatial cognition training, especially for beginners. Additionally, our multimodal approach allows for progressively increasing task complexity, maintaining a challenge throughout training. This study underscores the potential of VR in developing spatial skills and highlights the value of comparing brain data and human interaction across different training settings.

No faces, just body movements—Effects of perceived emotional valence of body kinetics and psychological factors on interpersonal distance behavior within an immersive virtual environment

In an immersive virtual environment, it was investigated how the perception of body kinetics contributes to social distance behavior when the facial expression and other physical properties of a social interaction partner cannot be perceived. Based on point light displays, both the subject and the social interaction partner were depicted as stick figures, both moving simultaneously in the same space. In addition, the effects of relevant psychological factors of the perceiver on social distance behavior were examined. The results were consistent with those from studies with facial expressions or realistic full-body interactants. A greater distance was maintained from characters with emotionally negative expressions of body kinetics. Stationary objects stimuli, which were also included in the study, were mostly passed closer than neutral agents. However, the results are not entirely clear and require further investigation. Depressive symptom burden and factors mainly related to anxiety and avoidance showed effects on social distance in an IVE. The CID, a test often used to assess the interpersonal distance at which a person is comfortable, correlated with that overt behavior. In summary, the results of the study provide experimental evidence that the perception of body kinetics has a similarly significant influence on the regulation of social distance as, for example, facial affect. Implementing this study in real life would be incredibly complex, if not impossible. It is interesting to see that the comparatively simple method used in this study to create and operate an immersive virtual environment turned out to be suitable for studying at least simple types of social behavior based on body movements.

Colour Calibration of a Head Mounted Display for Colour Vision Research Using Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) technology offers vision researchers the opportunity to conduct immersive studies in simulated real-world scenes. However, an accurate colour calibration of the VR head mounted display (HMD), both in terms of luminance and chromaticity, is required to precisely control the presented stimuli. Such a calibration presents significant new challenges, for example, due to the large field of view of the HMD, or the software implementation used for scene rendering, which might alter the colour appearance of objects. Here, we propose a framework for calibrating an HMD using an imaging colorimeter, the I29 (Radiant Vision Systems, Redmond, WA, USA). We examine two scenarios, both with and without using a rendering software for visualisation. In addition, we present a colour constancy experiment design for VR through a gaming engine software, Unreal Engine 4. The colours of the objects of study are chosen according to the previously defined calibration. Results show a high-colour constancy performance among participants, in agreement with recent studies performed on real-world scenarios. Our studies show that our methodology allows us to control and measure the colours presented in the HMD, effectively enabling the use of VR technology for colour vision research.

Guidelines for immersive virtual reality in psychological research

Virtual reality (VR) holds immense promise as a research tool to deliver results that are generalizable to the real world. However, the methodology used in different VR studies varies substantially. While many of these approaches claim to use 'immersive VR', the different hardware and software choices lead to issues regarding reliability and validity of psychological VR research. Questions arise about quantifying presence, the optimal level of graphical realism, the problem of being in dual realities and reproducibility of VR research. We discuss how VR research paradigms could be evaluated and offer a list of practical recommendations to have common guidelines for psychological VR research.