Stronger reactivity to social gaze in virtual reality compared to a classical laboratory environment

People show a robust tendency to gaze at other human beings when viewing images or videos, but were also found to relatively avoid gaze at others in several real-world situations. This discrepancy, along with theoretical considerations, spawned doubts about the appropriateness of classical laboratory-based experimental paradigms in social attention research. Several researchers instead suggested the use of immersive virtual scenarios in eliciting and measuring naturalistic attentional patterns, but the field, struggling with methodological challenges, still needs to establish the advantages of this approach. Here, we show using eye-tracking in a complex social scenario displayed in virtual reality that participants show enhanced attention towards the face of an avatar at near distance and demonstrate an increased reactivity towards her social gaze as compared to participants who viewed the same scene on a computer monitor. The present study suggests that reactive virtual agents observed in immersive virtual reality can elicit natural modes of information processing and can help to conduct ecologically more valid experiments while maintaining high experimental control.     

Utopias and Comparative Assessments of Justice

When we make public policy choices, is it helpful to know how utopia (that is, the perfectly just institutional design) would look? Amartya Sen argues that it is neither necessary, nor sufficient, nor even contributory. He claims that before making a policy choice one should compare several feasible institutional designs to see which promotes justice most (a “comparative assessment” of justice), and that it is misleading to use the perfect design as a standard in those comparisons. Principles of justice are the proper standard. The present article contends that the perfect design has nevertheless an important role to play in the prior task of identifying and refining our principles of justice. It also shows that the perfect design—in at least one sense of this term—may be a legitimate long‐term goal for present policy choices.     

The Church of England’s Pray One for Me intercessory prayer site: a virtual cathedral?

Over the past decade there has been a growing number of studies examining the prayer content of people’s personal prayers left in intercessory church-related contexts. Since 2012, these studies have extended to include the cathedral intercessory prayer board and the online intercessory prayer site. Both ‘the cathedral’ and ‘the online site’ are distinctive contexts for intercessory prayer in terms of their openness and accessibility for a broad range of people, who are allowed to enter and use these prayer facilities. What is not known, however, is whether the cathedral prayer board and the online site are functioning in similar ways. This study presents an analysis of 500 prayers posted on the Church of England’s ‘Pray One for Me’ (POFM) website over a period of six months in 2012. The analysis employs the ap Siôn Analytic Framework for Intercessory Prayer (apSAFIP), which distinguishes among prayer intention, prayer reference, and prayer objective. The results of the analysis are compared with the results from recent cathedral studies employing the same analytic tool, and it is concluded that these two prayer contexts are functioning differently.     

Researching consumers in virtual worlds: a cyberspace odyssey

Following Belk's (1991) Consumer Behaviour Odyssey, the authors suggest the need for a new odyssey, one that focuses on consumers in virtual worlds. In this paper the authors discuss the relevance of virtual communities for marketers and how ethnographic research methods can be adapted to the online environment. The unique methodological problems, opportunities and ethical dilemmas for researchers are considered that online ethnography raises before an exploration of how discourse analysis can assist in the interpretation of data collected online. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications.     

基于情绪认知评价理论的虚拟人情绪模型研究

情感计算是人工智能的前沿领域之一,建立具有情绪表现力的人机智能系统具有广泛的社会需求。本文分析了基于情绪认知评价理论的情绪建模方法,总结了典型的虚拟人情绪计算模型,归纳了情绪和感知的相关成果,梳理了虚拟人情绪表现方法。针对情绪建模所要深入研究的问题,分析现有研究中存在的不足,对虚拟人情绪模型研究的未来发展方向提出了建议,为进一步深入研究虚拟人情绪模型提供了参考。     

Cognitive consequences of playing brain-training games in immersive virtual reality

The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of playing an immersive virtual reality game that included a collection of gamified cognitive tasks, Cerevrum, on specific components of cognition, including perceptual attention, mental rotation, working memory, visualization, visual field of view, and visual processing speed. Participants completed a pretest of cognitive assessments, played one of the two mini-games within Cerevrum (Stardust or Heroes) for 1.5 hr over three 30-min sessions and then completed a posttest of cognitive assessments and a questionnaire about interest and engagement during the game. An inactive control group completed only the pretest and posttest. Results showed no significant differences among the Heroes group, Stardust group, and control group on the posttest scores, even when controlled for pretest scores. These findings do not support the claim that playing brain-training games for a short period results in transfer of cognitive training to nongame venues.     

Cognitive ability in virtual reality: Validity evidence for VR game‐based assessments

Virtual reality (VR) technology may provide unique benefits for assessing individual characteristics, in contrast with traditional assessments. This study examined validity evidence for the use of VR game (VRG) scores to indicate specific cognitive abilities. Participants completed three VRGs, three computer‐based assessments (CBAs), and additional scales. To evaluate convergent validity, VRG scores were compared with CBA scores. For divergent validity, VRG scores were compared with five factors of personality based on the Five Factor Model. For criterion‐related validity, VRG scores were compared with academic achievement (i.e., grade point average). Findings generally provided support that the VRG scores are related to certain spatial reasoning subdimensions of cognitive ability. However, further research is needed to examine the qualities of VRGs as assessment tools.     

Teaching and Learning Logic in a Virtual Learning Environment

Teaching and learning in a virtual learning environment (VLE)poses some difficulties, but also challenges and opportunitiesto rethink the whole learning process, particularly in abstractsubjects like logic or high level mathematics. On the otherhand, resources and ways to work, now available in VLEs, mightsoon extend to all kinds of environments. In this paper, wewill present experiences at the Open University of Catalonia(UOC), a particular VLE, concerning the whole process of teachinglogic and mathematics. In addition, we will discuss some challengesand we will present some innovation projects allowed by thepresent and near future technologies.     

虚拟代理技术在电子商务中的应用及有关的人机工程学问题

电子商务是一种以信息网络为载体的新的经济运作模式。本文介绍了电子商务网站智能型虚拟代理的概念与用途,概述了电子商务网站在设置与使用虚拟代理时需要考虑的人机工程学问题,其中包括可信任度、中介性能、可靠、灵活性、增值服务和娱乐性等。最后,对这一新兴领域的研究趋势作了展望。     

虚拟团队沟通模式对信任和绩效的作用

本研究采用资源两难的情景模拟．研究虚拟团队中沟通模式对于团队信任和绩效的作用,120名被试参与了实验。研究发现．虚拟团队在资源两难任务中．沟通模式对信任和绩效的作用均达到显著水平．团队的信任和绩效水平在网络式沟通模式中最高,其次是层级模式,在序列模式中最低,显示了沟通模式在虚拟团队中作用方式。