More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/

article

Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments

Authors:

Michael Meehan,

Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.Authors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), Volume 21, Issue 3

Pages 645 - 652

https://doi.org/10.1145/566654.566630

Published: 01 July 2002 Publication History

Abstract

A common measure of the quality or effectiveness of a virtual environment (VE) is the mount of presence it evokes in users. Presence is often defined as the sense of being there in a VE. There has been much debate about the best way to measure presence, and presence researchers need, and have sought, a measure that is reliable, valid, sensitive, and objective.We hypothesized that to the degree that a VE seems real, it would evoke physiological responses similar to those evoked by the corresponding real environment, and that greater presence would evoke a greater response. To examine this, we conducted three experiments, the results of which support the use of physiological reaction as a reliable, valid, sensitive, and objective presence measure. The experiments compared participants' physiological reactions to a non-threatening virtual room and their reactions to a stressful virtual height situation. We found that change in heart rate satisfied our requirements for a measure of presence, change in skin conductance did to a lesser extent, and that change in skin temperature did not. Moreover, the results showed that inclusion of a passive haptic element in the VE significantly increased presence and that for presence evoked: 30FPS > 20FPS > 15FPS.

References

[1]

Abelson, J. L. and G. C. Curtis (1989). Cardiac and neuroendocrine responses to exposure therapy in height phobics. Behavior Research and Therapy, 27(5): 561-567.

[2]

Andreassi, J. L. (1995). Psychophysiology: Human behavior and physiological response. Hillsdale, N. J., Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

[3]

Barfield, W., T. Sheridan, D. Zeltzer and M. Slater (1995). Presence and performance within virtual environments. In W. Barfield and T. Furness, Eds., Virtual environments and advanced interface design. London, Oxford University Press.

[4]

Cowings, P., S. Jensen, D. Bergner and W. Toscano (2001). A lightweight ambulatory physiological monitoring system. NASA Ames, California.

[5]

Dillon, C., E. Keogh, J. Freeman and J. Davidoff (2001). Presence: Is your heart in it? 4th Int. Wkshp. on Presence, Philadelphia.

[6]

Ellis, S. R. (1996). Presence of mind: A reaction to Thomas Sheridan's "Further musings on the psychophysics of presence". Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 5(2): 247-259.

[7]

Emmelkamp, P. and M. Felten (1985). The process of exposure in vivo: cognitive and physiological changes during treatment of acrophobia. Behavior Research and Therapy, 23(2): 219.

[8]

Freeman, J., S. E. Avons, D. Pearson, D. Harrison and N. Lodge (1998). Behavioral realism as a metric of presence. 1st Int. Wkshp. on Presence.

[9]

Guyton, A. C. (1986). Basic characteristics of the sympathetic and parasympathetic function. In Textbook of Medical Physiology, 688-697. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company.

[10]

Heeter, C. (1992). Being there: The subjective experience of presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1: 262-271.

[11]

IJsselsteijn, W. A. and H. d. Ridder (1998). Measuring temporal variations in presence. 1st Int. Wkshp. on Presence.

[12]

B. Insko (2001). Passive haptics significantly enhance virtual environments, Doctoral Dissertation. Computer Science. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

[13]

Kleinbaum, D., L. Kupper, K. Muller and A. Nizam (1998). Applied regression analysis and other multivariate methods.

[14]

Lipsey, M. W. (1998). Design sensitivity: Statistical power for applied experimental research. In L. Brickman and D. J. Rog, Eds., Handbook of applied social research methods, 39-68. Thousand Oaks, California, Sage Publications, Inc.

[15]

Lombard, M. and T. Ditton (1997). At the heart of it all: The concept of presence. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 3(2).

[16]

McMurray, D. R. (1999). Director of Applied Physiology lab, University of North Carolina. Personal Communication.

[17]

M. Meehan (2001). Physiological reaction as an objective measure of presence in virtual environments. Doctoral Dissertation. Computer Science. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

[18]

Regenbrecht, H. T. and T. W. Schubert (1997). Measuring presence in virtual environments. In Proc. of Human Computer Interface International, San Francisco.

[19]

SAS (1990). SAS/STAT User's Guide, Version 6, Fourth Edition. Cary, NC, USA, SAS Institute Inc.

[20]

Schubert, T., F. Friedmann and H. Regenbrecht (1999). Embodied presence in virtual environments. In R. Paton and I. Neilson, Eds., Visual Representations and Interpretations. London, Springer-Verlag.

[21]

Sheridan, T. B. (1996). Further musings on the psychophysics of presence. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 5(2): 241-246.

[22]

Singleton, R. A., B. C. Straits and M. M. Straits (1993). Approaches to Social Research. New York, Oxford University Press.

[23]

Slater, M., M. Usoh and A. Steed (1994). Depth of presence in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 3(2): 130-144.

[24]

Slater, M., M. Usoh and A. Steed (1995). Taking steps: The influence of a walking technique on presence in virtual reality. ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction (TOCHI), 2(3): 201-219.

[25]

Slater, M. (1999). Measuring Presence: A Response to the Witmer and Singer Presence Questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 8(5): 560-565.

[26]

Slonim, N. B., Ed. (1974). Environmental Physiology. Saint Louis. The C. V. Mosby Company.

[27]

Sutherland, S. (1996). The international dictionary of psychology. New York, The Crossroads Publishing Company.

[28]

Usoh, M., K. Arthur, M. Whitton, R. Bastos, A. Steed, M. Slater and F. Brooks (1999). Walking > walking-in-place > flying in virtual environments. In Proc. of ACM SIGGRAPH 99. ACM Press/ ACM SIGGRAPH.

[29]

Weiderhold, B. K., R. Gervirtz and M. D. Wiederhold (1998). Fear of flying: A case report using virtual reality therapy with physiological monitoring. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 1(2): 97-104.

[30]

Witmer, B. G. and M. J. Singer (1998). Measuring presence in virtual environments: A presence questionnaire. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 7(3): 225-240.

Cited By

Green AClark APitchford MGuppy A(2025)Viewing mock crimes in virtual reality increases presence without impacting memoryBehavior Research Methods10.3758/s13428-024-02575-157:3Online publication date: 3-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02575-1
Chen ELi T(2025)Evaluating the effectiveness of nighttime natural virtual scene on relaxation and sleepinessBiomedical Signal Processing and Control10.1016/j.bspc.2025.107596105(107596)Online publication date: Jul-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2025.107596
Giesel MRuseva DHesse C(2025)Obstacle avoidance of physical, stereoscopic, and pictorial objectsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-025-01119-y29:1Online publication date: 1-Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-025-01119-y
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments
1. Computing methodologies
  1. Computer graphics
    1. Graphics systems and interfaces
      1. Virtual reality
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. HCI design and evaluation methods
    2. Interaction devices
      1. Haptic devices

Recommendations

Physiological measures of presence in stressful virtual environments
SIGGRAPH '02: Proceedings of the 29th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques

A common measure of the quality or effectiveness of a virtual environment (VE) is the mount of presence it evokes in users. Presence is often defined as the sense of being there in a VE. There has been much debate about the best way to measure presence, ...
Memory for a virtual reality experience in children and adults according to image quality, emotion, and sense of presence
Abstract
Numerous studies have explored the effects of virtual reality (VR) on adults’ cognition. Little is known, however, of these effects in children. The aim of this study was to explore, in both children and adults, the respective roles of the ...
Is virtual reality emotionally arousing? Investigating five emotion inducing virtual park scenarios

Following the idea of using virtual environments (VEs) as mood induction procedures (MIPs), this study set out to examine whether five different virtual park scenarios would each elicit a specific affective state (i.e., joy, sadness, boredom, anger and ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics

ACM Transactions on Graphics Volume 21, Issue 3

July 2002

548 pages

ISSN:0730-0301

EISSN:1557-7368

DOI:10.1145/566654

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2002 ACM.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2002

Published in TOG Volume 21, Issue 3

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

427
Total Citations
View Citations
5,366
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)269
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)32

Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Green AClark APitchford MGuppy A(2025)Viewing mock crimes in virtual reality increases presence without impacting memoryBehavior Research Methods10.3758/s13428-024-02575-157:3Online publication date: 3-Feb-2025
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02575-1
Chen ELi T(2025)Evaluating the effectiveness of nighttime natural virtual scene on relaxation and sleepinessBiomedical Signal Processing and Control10.1016/j.bspc.2025.107596105(107596)Online publication date: Jul-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2025.107596
Giesel MRuseva DHesse C(2025)Obstacle avoidance of physical, stereoscopic, and pictorial objectsVirtual Reality10.1007/s10055-025-01119-y29:1Online publication date: 1-Mar-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-025-01119-y
Mancuso VBorghesi FChirico ABruni FSarcinella EPedroli ECipresso P(2024)IAVRS—International Affective Virtual Reality System: Psychometric Assessment of 360° Images by Using Psychophysiological DataSensors10.3390/s2413420424:13(4204)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/s24134204
Saboundji RFaragó KFiryaridi V(2024)Prediction of Attention Groups and Big Five Personality Traits from Gaze Features Collected from an Outlier Search GameJournal of Imaging10.3390/jimaging1010025510:10(255)Online publication date: 16-Oct-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging10100255
Thorp SRimol LLervik SEvensmoen HGrassini S(2024)Comparative analysis of spatial ability in immersive and non-immersive virtual reality: the role of sense of presence, simulation sickness and cognitive loadFrontiers in Virtual Reality10.3389/frvir.2024.13438725Online publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2024.1343872
Burd KBurrow AGuyll M(2024)Pulling away from the trigger: the influences of purpose in life and self-affirmation on decisions to shootFrontiers in Cognition10.3389/fcogn.2024.13976433Online publication date: 17-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcogn.2024.1397643
Fairclough SBaker COgden RBarnes RToothill J(2024)Distortions to Passage of Time Judgements (POTJ) due to virtual threat are predicted by autonomic activationPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.031307319:12(e0313073)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313073
Zhu HChen HLin C(2024)Understanding the effects of stress on the P300 response during naturalistic simulation of heights exposurePLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.030105219:4(e0301052)Online publication date: 17-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301052
Simonetti ADini HBruni LBigne E(2024)Conscious and non-conscious responses to branded narrative advertising: Investigating narrativity level and device typeBRQ Business Research Quarterly10.1177/23409444241248191Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1177/23409444241248191
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Article

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Issue’s Table of Contents