The Social Brain in Virtual Reality. Changing Perspective on Self and Others in Immersive Virtual Environments

The Social Brain in Virtual Reality. Changing Perspective on Self and Others in Immersive Virtual Environments
Author: Solène Neyret
Publisher:
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN:

One fundamental aspect of the human brain is that it is highly shaped by experience and interaction with the surrounding environment. Signals coming from different sensory streams are integrated to create a coherent representation of the environment and of the "self", as a part of this environment. The boundaries of the self are defined through the constant and dynamic exchanges between an individual and their physical and social environment. Self-perception and self-representation are complex processes that seem to be linked to perception and representation of others. We know that humans experience a sense of self-awareness, but the neural bases of this phenomenon are not clearly understood yet. In this thesis we focus on three different aspects of the "self" as a dynamic process: body representation, social identity, and conceptual representation of a personal problem. We report on three behavioural studies using immersive virtual reality that demonstrate how self-representation is highly influenced by social feedback. In the first experiment, we re-created a virtual representation of the internal image participants had of their own body shape. We also re-created a virtual body corresponding to their ideal body shape, and another virtual body representing their real body shape. Participants saw the three different virtual bodies from a first-person perspective and from a third-person perspective and they had to evaluate the appearance of those virtual bodies. We observed that female participants evaluated their real body as more attractive when they saw it from a third-person perspective, and that their level of body dissatisfaction was lower after the experimental procedure. We believe that third-person perspective allowed female participants to perceive their real body shape without applying the negative prior beliefs usually associated to the "self", and that this resulted in a more positive evaluation of their body shape. In the second experiment, we showed how the influence of a group can determine behaviour of an individual. We created a social situation of verbal harassment in virtual reality, and embodied participants in different agents of that scene. In one condition, participants experienced the scene from the perspective of the victim (female avatar). In the other condition, participants saw the situation from the perspective of a member of the group of males performing the harassment (in-group condition). One week later, participants went through a virtual reproduction of the Milgram experiment, and we measured their behaviour in terms of the number of shocks they would give to the victim (again a female avatar). All participants were sitting with a group of three virtual experimenters (male avatars), who were instructing them to give shocks to the victim until the end of the procedure. Our results show that participants of the in-group condition, behaved according to the instructions received from the virtual experimenters, and were more likely to finish the procedure. We argue that social feedback and group influence is critical in determining individual behaviour. In the third experiment, we show how subjective evaluation of a personal problem, can be modified by getting a third-person perspective of oneself. Participants were asked to describe a personal problem causing mid-level distress in their daily life and had the opportunity to discuss it, in virtual reality, with an avatar of Dr Sigmund Freud. In the experimental condition, participants were embodied alternatively in their own virtual avatar and in the virtual body of Freud, allowing them to enter in a "self-conversation". In the control condition, participants were embodied in their own virtual body, and received general counselling from the avatar of Freud. Our results show that the self- conversation condition helped participants to get a new perspective on their problem, leading them to get a better understanding of it and new ideas on how to solve it. Participants in the self-conversation condition also reported less negative automatic thoughts after their experience in virtual reality. We believe that the psychological distance given by the third-person perspective, allowed participants to get a more rational understanding of their situation. Overall, we demonstrate in this thesis, that self-perception, self-representation, self- evaluation and behavioral responses are highly influenced by social feedback. We show that third-person perspective enables to decrease negative bias in self-evaluation. We hope to be able to develop those findings in future clinical applications of immersive virtual reality.

Consensual Illusion: The Mind in Virtual Reality

Consensual Illusion: The Mind in Virtual Reality
Author: Vanja Kljajevic
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2021-07-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3662637421

This book is inspired by the contemporary fascination with virtual reality and growing presence of this type of technology in everyday life. It explores the ways in which virtual reality evokes illusory transformation responses. The power of virtual reality is in making the mediation by technology in these experiences appear irrelevant to cognitive processes, so much so that it is often assumed that skills acquired in virtual environments are generally transferable to the physical world. However, cognition is affected by virtual reality technology, which is reflected in issues related to virtual embodiment, choice of spatial strategies, differences in neural and electrophysiological patterns associated with movement processing when navigating virtual vs. physical environments, and, at least to some extent, in virtual proxemics. In addition to spatial cognition, the book explores the sense of self in virtual reality, social interaction and virtual togetherness, action and motor cognition, calling to mind debates from philosophy, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Future Presence

Future Presence
Author: Peter Rubin
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0062566725

A Wired senior editor and virtual reality expert presents a captivating, candid glimpse into the future "realities" of this emerging technology: how we will use it to form previously impossible relationships, explore new frontiers of intimacy, and how it will forever change human connection. Heralded as the most significant technological innovation since the smartphone, virtual reality is poised to transform our very notions of life and humanity. Though this tech is still in its infancy, to those on the inside, it is the future. VR will change how we work, how we experience entertainment, how we feel pleasure and other emotions, how we see ourselves, and most importantly, how we relate to each other in the real world. And we will never be the same. Peter Rubin, senior culture editor for Wired and the industry’s go-to authority on the subject, calls it an "intimacy engine." While once we needed another person to feel the sensations of closeness, trust, vulnerability, confidence, and titillation, VR will give us the ability to induce these sensations by ourselves for the first time in human history. This metamorphosis, Rubin argues, is going to have a powerful impact on relationships that will ripple throughout our society and our individual lives. A journey into this uncertain future and a glimpse at the cultural implications and promises of a new reality, Future Presence explores a host of complex questions about what makes us human, what connects us, and what is real. Offering a glimpse into the mind-blowing things happening in universities, labs, and tech companies around the world, Rubin leads readers on an entertaining tour of the weirdest, wildest corners of this fascinating new universe. Describing this book as "half travelogue and half crystal ball", Rubin will: Introduce readers to the creators and consumers of VR technology Show readers what an experience is like inside the current VR devices Explain how this technology will upend everything we know about human connection in the future At once the incredible, inevitable story of virtual reality’s rise and a look towards the future of our fantasies, Future Presence is a deeply personal examination of what connects us, and an analysis of what relationships, empathy, and sex could look like—sooner than we think.

Interacting with Presence

Interacting with Presence
Author: Giuseppe Riva
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2014-10-08
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3110409690

The experience of using and interacting with the newest Virtual Reality and computing technologies is profoundly affected by the extent to which we feel ourselves to be really ‘present’ in computer-generated and -mediated augmented worlds. This feeling of 'Presence’, of “being inside the mediated world”, is key to understanding developments in applications such as interactive entertainment, gaming, psychotherapy, education, scientific visualisation, sports training and rehabilitation, and many more. This edited volume, featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars, provides a comprehensive introduction to and overview of the topic of mediated presence - or ‘tele-presence’ - and of the emerging field of presence research. It is intended for researchers and graduate students in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, psychology, cyberpsychology and computer science, as well as for experienced professionals from the ICT industry. The editors are all well-known professional researchers in the field: Professor Giuseppe Riva from the Catholic University of Milan, Italy; Professor John Waterworth from Umeå University, Sweden; Dianne Murray, an HCI Consultant and editor of the journal “Interacting with Computers”.

Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do

Experience on Demand: What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do
Author: Jeremy Bailenson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2018-01-30
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0393253708

“If you want to understand the most immersive new communications medium to come along since cinema… I’d suggest starting with Mr. Bailenson’s [book].” —Wall Street Journal Virtual reality is able to effectively blur the line between reality and illusion, granting us access to any experience imaginable. These experiences, ones that the brain is convinced are real, will soon be available everywhere. In Experience on Demand, Jeremy Bailenson draws upon two decades spent researching the psychological effects of VR to help readers understand its upsides and possible downsides. He offers expert guidelines for interacting with VR, and describes the profound ways this technology can be put to use to hone our performance, help us recover from trauma, improve our learning, and even enhance our empathic and imaginative capacities so that we treat others and ourselves better.

Being Really Virtual

Being Really Virtual
Author: Frank Steinicke
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2016-10-22
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3319430785

This book focuses on the recent developments of virtual reality (VR) and immersive technologies, what effect they are having on our modern, digitised society and explores how current developments and advancements in this field are leading to a virtual revolution. Using Ivan Sutherland's ‘The Ultimate Display’ and Moore’s law as a springboard, the author discusses both popular scientific and technological accounts of the past, present and possible futures of VR, looking at current research trends, developments, challenges and ethical considerations to the coming age of differing realities. Being Really Virtual is for researchers, designers and developers of VR and immersive technologies and anyone with an interest in the exponential rise of such technologies and how they are changing the very way we perceive, interact and communicate within our digital society.

Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities, and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education

Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities, and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education
Author: D’Agustino, Steven
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2012-12-31
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1466627018

Technology has had direct impact on education in increasing the way that society continues to learn. Applications of immersive environments, virtual worlds, and augmented reality have significant implications for how teaching and learning are achieved in contemporary education. Immersive Environments, Augmented Realities and Virtual Worlds: Assessing Future Trends in Education brings together current research and performance in trends in education. While examining cyber behavior and the use of virtual worlds, immersive technologies and augmented realities aim to improve teaching and enhancing learning.

Embodied Experiences in Immersive Virtual Environments

Embodied Experiences in Immersive Virtual Environments
Author: Sun Joo Ahn
Publisher: Stanford University
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

Immersive virtual environments (IVE) allow users experience vivid sensorimotor stimuli by digitally simulating sensorimotor information. As a result, users are able to embody experiences by seeing, hearing, and feeling realistic perceptual cues linked to those experiences. Embodied experiences are defined as being surrounded by simulated sensorimotor information in mediated environments that create the sensation of personally undergoing the experience at that moment. Based on the theoretical framework of embodied cognition, which stipulates a close connection between sensorimotor experiences of the body and mental schemas, the current dissertation studies demonstrated that embodied experiences in IVEs are able to influence attitudes and behaviors in the physical, non-mediated world. Two studies explored the effect of embodied experiences on proenvironmental attitude and behavior by having participants embody the experience of cutting down a redwood tree as a result of using non-recycled paper products. Focus was also placed on investigating individual elements of embodied experiences in IVEs and the moderating effect of individual differences in the capacity to feel presence, the perception that a mediated experience is real. In both studies, actual pro-environmental behavior is observed and compared to self-reports of attitude and behavioral intention.

Boundaries of Self and Reality Online

Boundaries of Self and Reality Online
Author: Jayne Gackenbach
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0128041749

As technology continues to rapidly advance, individuals and society are profoundly changed. So too are the tools used to measure this universe and, therefore, our understanding of reality improves. Boundaries of Self and Reality Online examines the idea that technological advances associated with the Internet are moving us in multiple domains toward various "edges." These edges range from self, to society, to relationships, and even to the very nature of reality. Boundaries are dissolving and we are redefining the elements of identity. The book begins with explorations of the digitally constructed self and the relationship between the individual and technological reality. Then, the focus shifts to society at large and includes a contribution from Chinese researchers about the isolated Chinese Internet. The later chapters of the book explore digital reality at large, including discussions on virtual reality, Web consciousness, and digital physics. Cyberpsychology architecture Video games as a tool for self-understanding Avatars and the meaning behind them Game transfer phenomena A Jungian perspective on technology Politics of social media The history and science of video game play Transcendent virtual reality experiences The theophoric quality of video games