2009-10-15

Virtual Reality Social Psychology

Today I had the pleasure of giving a talk at the Institute of Work and Organizational Psychology at the University of Neuchâtel (Institute de Psychologie du Travail et des Organisations (IPTO), Université de Neuchâtel). See here. I was invited by Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast and had the opportunity to see her laboratory and meet her cool team before my talk. In Neuchâtel, they do something I had never seen before: Virtual reality social psychology.

Social psychology studies, among other things, the interactions between individuals. Which is a challenge for laboratory research, because it adds a large amount of complexity (and costs) to experiments. For example, if a researcher wants to study the effects of group diversity on group performance, each observation requires not a single participant, but an entire group of participants. If a researcher wants to study a behavior that is evoked by a specific social interaction, it gets even more complicated: Suppose a researcher thinks that individuals will share less information with an incompetent supervisor than with a competent supervisor. An according experiment would require a supervisor who is either competent or incompetent in every experiment. Also, this supervisor should possibly exhibit the same interactions towards all experimental participants in one condition. One way of doing this is by hiring an actor for the role of the supervisor, which is often not feasible.

At Prof. Schmid Mast's Lab, they do such studies in a different way. They use virtual reality; a 3D virtual immersive environment. The experiment participant wears a head-mounted display (HMD) that gives him or her her the impression of being in another world. In this virtual world, one can interact with avatars, virtual representations of individuals. Those are programmed by the experimenters in such a way that they exhibit a certain interpersonal behavior, which is of course always constant and fully controllable by the experimenters. At the same time, the system logs data that is difficult to acquire in normal laboratory settings, such as interpersonal spatial distance between the participant and the avatars. In combination with verbal codings of the participant, one gets an extremely rich and reliable source for social interaction data.

Below is a picture of me trying it out. There is a diagram showing how the system works in the background: Four cameras pick up the infrared signal that the blue LED at the back of the HMD emits. A highly sensitive motion sensor (the little blue box next to the LED) picks up the tiniest movement of the head. These data are combined by the tracking computer in order to determine the spatial position of the participant. A second computer renders the environment accordingly and projects it in 3D into the HMD (visible on the second picture on the right screen in the background). The graphics are extremely good, I'd say they match current high-quality ego-shooter games.


The possibilities of such an experimental paradigm are endless. For example, I was in a virtual world where my own avatar was a woman. I could see my reflection in a mirror and it would correspond to my head movements (the face was almost photorealistic), but it wasn't me - it was this other person. The experience was insofar fascinating as it felt extremely real. In another scenario, I found myself standing on a narrow wooden board across a crater in the street. The crater was about 30m deep and 10m in diameter. I could see to its bottom - I was standing above this gaping hole. On a narrow piece of wood. I could feel the vertigo and my palms started to sweat. When the experimenter asked me to jump into the abyss, I couldn't. I knew that this was only virtual and the graphics looked more like the ego shooter that my brother used to play but still - I couldn't get myself to jump off the board for a couple of minutes. It felt that real.

Only an imbecile would not see the possibilities of such a technology for psychological research. Body image. Behavior therapy. Social interactions. I am sure that in a couple of years, the employment of 3D VR environments for psychological research will be as common as the use of fMRI today. Just that spending half an hour in a virtual world is much more fun than spending ten minutes inside the narrow tube of a scanner.

Labels: , , ,

11 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I'm happy about everything you bring it very interesting and helpful, thanks
agario , agar io , happy wheels 2 , 8 ball pool , happy wheels , friv , games 2 girls , juegos de frozen , unblocked games , agario games , whatsapp indir , mobogenie indir

10:03 AM  
Blogger lolyta said...

I came across the serach engine and find your website, you have great and nice blog, Thanks for sharing, God

bless you
Pingback : HARGA VIMAX IZON
HARGA VIMAX IZON ASLI
OBAT VIMAX HERBAL
VIMAX IZON ASLI
AGEN VIMAX


http://vimaxizoncanada.com/

vimax izon asli
jual vimax izon
harga vimax izon
vimax izon canada
vimax izon Original
khasiat vimax canada
vimax izon
vimax izon


RAHASIADEWASA.NET

PERANGSANG WANITA
opium spray
opium spray asli
jual opium spray
OBAT PERANGSANG WANITA
MAXMAN CAPSULE
PRO

EXTENDER

selaput dara buatan
selaput dara keperawanan


ALATSEXIMPORT.COM

ALAT BANTU SEX
JUAL ALAT SEX IMPORT
TOKO ALAT BANTU SEX IMPORT
PENGHILANG DAN PENGHAPUS TATTO PERMANEN
ALAT SEX UNTUK BDSM
BONEKA SEX KOREA FULL BODI
ALAT ONANI PRIA

OPIUM SPRAY

Vmenplus Herbal
Vmenplus
Vmenplus import
Vmenplus Asli
Vmenplus herbal
Obat Vmenplus

11:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

geometry dash

geometry dash

3:19 PM  
Blogger alicetaylor said...

Very helpful advice in this particular post! It’s the little changes that make the largest changes. Thanks for sharing!

monkey go happy | monkey go happy 2 | learn to fly | learn to fly 3 | pacman | pacman game | mahjong | mahjong games | cat mario 4 | cat mario | happy wheels 2 | happy wheels

9:32 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...


IPL 9 Time Table
ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Live Score at www.cricbuzz.com
ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Ticket Booking
IPL 2016 Schedule

4:52 PM  
Anonymous Shiwam said...

world twenty20 2016 bangladesh team

2:43 PM  
Blogger ipl 9 live score said...

ind vs pak match ticket booking online ww.bookmyshow.com
icc t20 crcket world cup match summary predictions who will win the match world cup
happy mothers day quotes from son and daughter to mother


http://fan-boxofficecollection.in/fan-movie-star-cast-wiki-hd-trailer-release-date/

11:11 AM  
Anonymous Book review writing services said...

This article is informative and spectacular. I don't think that I've ever read an article of such high dignifying quality.

7:25 AM  
Blogger happy dussehra images and wishes messages quotes said...

this blog is really helpful. i found very interesting things here.
fan movie 1st day EXPECTED box office collection
fan movie friday box office collection predictions
fan movie first day box office collection
ind vs pak match ticket booking online ww.bookmyshow.com
happy mothers day quotes 2016

11:38 AM  
Blogger happy dussehra images and wishes messages quotes said...

this blog is really helpful. i found very interesting things here.
fan movie 1st day EXPECTED box office collection
fan movie friday box office collection predictions
fan movie first day box office collection
ind vs pak match ticket booking online ww.bookmyshow.com
happy mothers day quotes 2016

11:40 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Icc T20 World Cup 2016 Schedule

9:01 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home