Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers new ways to support how students learn about the ancient world. However, most classroom studies of IVR have a STEM disciplinary focus, drawing on learning approaches that may not generalise to the humanities. We conducted an in situ study of a humanities-focused educational IVR experience, delivered within a live classroom to students of an ancient history course. Using a between-subjects design (N = 84), we varied the medium of delivery for key teaching content between teacher-led instruction and an IVR experience. Between-group differences in prior knowledge, motivation, and responsiveness to immersive media were controlled for. Two learning outcomes, Recall Performance and Knowledge Engagement, were assessed using a mix of single and multiple-mark examination questions, administered one week after the lesson and repeated twelve weeks later. We found that participants who encountered the teaching content via IVR showed markedly better knowledge retention at twelve weeks than those taught conventionally. This finding runs contrary to several comparable studies and underscores the need for further investigation of IVR's longitudinal effects on learning. We also found that the medium of delivery shaped how students developed conceptual understanding of the material. Those who learned in IVR found the experience visually compelling, but this also fostered a heightened sense of certainty about the “truth” of what they had seen, and a corresponding reduction in willingness to consider alternative interpretations. Conversely, students taught without IVR demonstrated greater imaginative engagement and less certainty, resulting in a more open consideration of competing ideas. Our results are discussed in terms of the implications of IVR-based learning for humanities students, with particular attention to the care required when designing IVR historical experiences for classroom use.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers new ways to support how students learn about the ancient world. However, most classroom studies of IVR have a STEM disciplinary focus, drawing on learning approaches that may not generalise to the humanities. We conducted an in situ study of a humanities-focused educational IVR experience, delivered within a live classroom to students of an ancient history course. Using a between-subjects design (N = 84), we varied the medium of delivery for key teaching content between teacher-led instruction and an IVR experience. Between-group differences in prior knowledge, motivation, and responsiveness to immersive media were controlled for. Two learning outcomes, Recall Performance and Knowledge Engagement, were assessed using a mix of single and multiple-mark examination questions, administered one week after the lesson and repeated twelve weeks later. We found that participants who encountered the teaching content via IVR showed markedly better knowledge retention at twelve weeks than those taught conventionally. This finding runs contrary to several comparable studies and underscores the need for further investigation of IVR's longitudinal effects on learning. We also found that the medium of delivery shaped how students developed conceptual understanding of the material. Those who learned in IVR found the experience visually compelling, but this also fostered a heightened sense of certainty about the "truth" of what they had seen, and a corresponding reduction in willingness to consider alternative interpretations. Conversely, students taught without IVR demonstrated greater imaginative engagement and less certainty, resulting in a more open consideration of competing ideas. Our results are discussed in terms of the implications of IVR-based learning for humanities students, with particular attention to the care required when designing IVR historical experiences for classroom use.

This experiment examined the feasibility of 360° video as a tool for public health messaging by investigating the effect that viewing the 360° documentary The Waiting Room VR had on female viewers’ sense of identification, attitudes to breast cancer screening and mortality salience. A key part of the documentary places participants in a viewpoint ambiguously aligned to that of the film’s director and subject, Victoria Mapplebeck (VM), in a scene that recreates her radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Eighty female participants watched the documentary either sitting upright with the chair back set at a 90° angle or reclining with the chair back set at a 140° angle (consistent with VMs posture) under conditions of either high or low cognitive load. The effect of posture type was measured explicitly using questionnaires on presence, identification and breast self-examination (BSE) intention as well as implicitly using a lexical decision task to measure death-thought awareness (DTA). Reclined posture led to a higher sense of spatial presence but no increase in identification with VM. Significantly increased identification with VM led to greater intention to conduct BSE. There were no effects of posture, cognitive load or identification on DTA. The implications of these results for using 360° video as a behaviour change tool, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the terror management manipulation and the relevance of spatial viewpoint in 360° video are discussed.

Personality characteristics can affect how much presence an individual experiences in virtual reality, and researchers have explored how it may be possible to prime users to increase their sense of presence. A personality characteristic that has yet to be explored in the VR literature is imaginative suggestibility, the ability of an individual to successfully experience an imaginary scenario as if it were real. In this paper, we explore how suggestibility and priming affect presence when consulting an ancient oracle in VR as part of an educational experience – a common VR application. We show for the first time how imaginative suggestibility is a major factor which affects presence and emotions experienced in VR, while priming cues have no effect on participants' (n=128) user experience, contrasting results from prior work. We consider the impacts of these findings for VR design and provide guidelines based on our results.

Issue information for Research for All 5 (2).

Consumer virtual reality (VR) headsets (e.g. Oculus Go) have brought VR non-fiction (VRNF) within reach of at-home audiences. However, despite increase in VR hardware sales and enthusiasm for the platform among niche audiences at festivals, mainstream audience interest in VRNF is not yet proven. This is despite a growing body of critically acclaimed VRNF, some of which is freely available. In seeking to understand a lack of engagement with VRNF by mainstream audiences, we need to be aware of challenges relating to the discovery of content and bear in mind the cost, inaccessibility and known limitations of consumer VR technology. However, we also need to set these issues within the context of the wider relationships between technology, society and the media, which have influenced the uptake of new media technologies in the past. To address this work, this article provides accounts by members of the public of their responses to VRNF as experienced within their households. We present an empirical study – one of the first of its kind – exploring these questions through qualitative research facilitating diverse households to experience VRNF at home, over several months. We find considerable enthusiasm for VR as a platform for non-fiction, but we also find this enthusiasm tempered by ethical concerns relating to both the platform and the content, and a pervasive tension between the platform and the home setting. Reflecting on our findings, we suggest that VRNF currently fails to meet any ‘supervening social necessity’ (Winston, 1996, Technologies of Seeing: Photography, Cinematography and Television. British: BFI.) that would pave the way for widespread domestic uptake, and we reflect on future directions for VR in the home.

Collaborations between human–computer interaction (HCI) researchers and arts practitioners frequently centre on the development of creative content using novel – often emergent – technologies. Concurrently, many of the techniques that HCI researchers use in evaluative participant-based research have their roots in the arts – such as sketching, writing, artefact prototyping and role play. In this reflective paper, we describe a recent collaboration between a group of HCI researchers and dramatists from the immersive theatre organization Kilter, who worked together to design a series of audience-based interventions to explore the ethics of virtual reality (VR) technology. Through a process of knowledge exchange, the collaboration provided the researchers with new techniques to explore, ideate and communicate their work, and provided the dramatists with a solid academic grounding in order to produce an accurate yet provocative piece of theatrically based design fiction. We describe the formation of this partnership between academia and creative industry, document our journey together, and share the lasting impact it has had upon both parties.

We evaluate AR for Plant maintenance by measuring how a prototype guidance system, tested under representative conditions, impacts performance. We are motivated to determine the cost-benefit of interactive guidance for hazardous, repetitive tasks and we observe an improvement of 21% efficiency, 50% accuracy and 19% reduced task load. AR has already been shown to deliver improvements in task performance, however, there is limited research exploring the integration of AR into complete task routines which presents a barrier to adoption. We apply mixed reality guidance via two within-group experiments. We measure efficiency and accuracy over a complete routine conducted under simulated conditions. Results compare AR versus Static and AR versus Adaptive. We conclude AR is best suited to demanding spatial translation and completion under pressure. We suggest AR offers potential in similar routines and propose further work to integrate in a live setting.

This paper presents a novel mobile serious game, "Space Vision", which uses a hidden-object mechanic with fiducial marker detection to gamify a clinical test of visual acuity - a key marker of childhood eye disease. For Space Vision to become a credible clinical tool that can facilitate the screening and home-monitoring of children's visual acuity, it must be able to sustain player engagement over the extended durations required to detect vision abnormalities. Hence, we pay particular attention to developing effective game characters - a crucial aspect of children's game design. Using an early prototype with 13 school children (aged 5-6 years), we investigate player experiences through a series of evaluation sessions, involving a single one-to-one observational playtest, semi-structured interview, and ideation activity with each child. Thematic analysis of our session video recordings, written observations, and ideation artefacts, found that future game iterations must: increase resonance between players and game characters by providing aesthetic and behavioural customisation, embrace more anthropomorphic styling, better imbue narratives pertaining to children's life scripts, and feature fantasy character powers as a form of self-expression. Meanwhile, greater physical device support and digital incentivisation of body posture and head position are key to improving the reliability of the visual acuity measurement.

Advances in head mounted displays (HMDs) have increased the interest in cinematic virtual reality as an art form. However, the freedom of a viewer in 360 video presents challenges in ensuring that audiences do not inadvertently miss important events and locations. We examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronize their attention during viewing. Sixty-four participants watched the 360° documentary Clouds Over Sidra (VRSE.works, 2015) using either an HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We used intersubject correlation (ISC) analysis to measure attentional synchrony over the course of the video and to examine whether spatial and temporal factors led to different amounts of correlation both within and between groups. We found significantly greater ISC for the HMD compared to the tablet group. This effect was greatest for scenes with a unidirectional focus and at the start of scenes. We discuss our results in terms of the visual properties and the motor affordances of HMDs versus tablets. Our results show the value of HMDs in increasing attentional synchrony and may provide producers of 360° content insight in how to encourage or discourage synchronization of viewing direction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Advances in head mounted displays (HMDs) have increased the interest in cinematic virtual reality as an art form. However, the freedom of a viewer in 360 video presents challenges in ensuring that audiences do not inadvertently miss important events and locations. We examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronize their attention during viewing. Sixty-four participants watched the 360 degrees documentary Clouds Over Sidra (VRSE.works, 2015) using either an HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We used intersubject correlation (ISC) analysis to measure attentional synchrony over the course of the video and to examine whether spatial and temporal factors led to different amounts of correlation both within and between groups. We found significantly greater ISC for the HMD compared to the tablet group. This effect was greatest for scenes with a unidirectional focus and at the start of scenes. We discuss our results in terms of the visual properties and the motor affordances of HMDs versus tablets. Our results show the value of HMDs in increasing attentional synchrony and may provide producers of 360 degrees content insight in how to encourage or discourage synchronization of viewing direction.

The excessive consumption of free sugars - sugar added to food, drinks and existing in honey, syrup and fruit juice - are endemic to the diets of Western children and a leading factor in dental disease. Recent public health interventions and legislation have aimed to safeguard consumer health. However, children and their parents continue to face challenges in understanding the implications of product sugar content for their long-term dental health when weighed against contradictory nutritional benefits and child-friendly marketing. Building upon previous HCI research on serious play for nutritional awareness and leveraging the power of digital pets for enacting behaviour change, we introduce 'the Sugargotchi' an embodied digital companion to raise children's awareness of their dental health and the adverse impacts of free sugars. This paper describes the rationale for the Sugargotchi's development, an overview of our initial prototype, and highlights the key design challenges it faces for household and clinical adoption.

Advances in head mounted displays (HMDs) have increased the interest in cinematic virtual reality as an art form. However, the freedom of a viewer in 360 video presents challenges in ensuring that audiences do not inadvertently miss important events and locations. We examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronize their attention during viewing. Sixty-four participants watched the 360° documentary Clouds Over Sidra (VRSE.works, 2015) using either an HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We used intersubject correlation (ISC) analysis to measure attentional synchrony over the course of the video and to examine whether spatial and temporal factors led to different amounts of correlation both within and between groups. We found significantly greater ISC for the HMD compared to the tablet group. This effect was greatest for scenes with a unidirectional focus and at the start of scenes. We discuss our results in terms of the visual properties and the motor affordances of HMDs versus tablets. Our results show the value of HMDs in increasing attentional synchrony and may provide producers of 360° content insight in how to encourage or discourage synchronization of viewing direction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examined whether a non-human robot audience can elicit a stress response in human participants. A 90-min experimental laboratory session based on the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) using a pre-recorded robot audience, was presented as a live on-screen simulation. Nineteen participants (female = 16) aged 21-57 years (M = 29.74) underwent a 10-min mock interview and mathematics task in front of the robot audience. Salivary cortisol was assessed at 10-min before and immediately prior to the start of the stress test, and +10-, +30- and +40-min after the start of the test. Heart rate was assessed 20 min before, at 5 min into and 40-min after the test. Perceived stress and trait coping responses were provided at entry and participants were interviewed post task about their subjective experience. Significant increases in salivary cortisol and heart rate were observed over time with no significant interactions by participant subjective report. Coping responses including active coping and planning showed significant relationships with cortisol and heart rate reactivity and recovery. Until now, a non-human robot audience has not been used in a social stress testing paradigm. This methodology offers an innovative application with potential for further in-depth evaluation of stress reactivity and adaptation.

In this half-day workshop, we will explore the ethics of Virtual Reality (VR) through conversations framed around design fictions. Affordable head-mounted displays (HMDs) and accessible VR content are now within reach of large audiences, yet many of VR's most urgent challenges remain under-explored. In addition to the many known unknowns (e.g. how do we manage sensory conflicts and spatial limitations in VR?), there are many more unknown unknowns (e.g. what kinds of psychological, social and cultural impact will VR provoke?). By bringing together diverse scenarios from workshop participants, and bespoke design fictions created specifically to explore the ethics of VR, we will facilitate a rich discussion that will inform the development of three high-fidelity design fictions that will be used to explore the ethics of VR in future workshops, including one in Bristol, UK in November 2019, part of the Virtual Realities Immersive Documentary Encounters project.

Virtual Reality nonfiction (VRNF) is an emerging form of immersive media experience created for consumption using panoramic "Virtual Reality" headsets. VRNF promises nonfiction content producers the potential to create new ways for audiences to experience "the real"; allowing viewers to transition from passive spectators to active participants. Our current project is exploring VRNF through a series of ethnographic and experimental studies. In order to document the content available, we embarked on an analysis of VR documentaries produced to date. In this paper, we present an analysis of a representative sample of 150 VRNF titles released between 2012-2018. We identify and quantify 64 characteristics of the medium over this period, discuss how producers are exploiting the affordances of VR, and shed light on new audience roles. Our findings provide insight into the current state of the art in VRNF and provide a digital resource for other researchers in this area.

This study examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronise their attention during viewing. 39 participants watched the 360° documentary “Clouds Over Sidra” using either a HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We found that the HMD group showed significantly greater overall ISC did the tablet group and that this effect was strongest during transition between scenes.

The emergence in recent years of consumer-accessible virtual reality (VR) technologies such as the Google Daydream, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive has led to a renewal of commercial, academic and public interest in immersive interactive media. Virtual reality non-fiction (VRNF) (e.g. documentary) is an emergent and rapidly evolving new medium for filmmaking that draws from - and builds upon traditional forms of non-fiction, as well as interactive media, gaming and immersive theatre. In this paper, we present our ongoing work to capture and present the first comprehensive record of VRNF - a Mediography of Virtual Reality Non-Fiction - to tell the story of where this new medium has come from, how it is evolving, and where it is heading.

In this paper, we present the results of an evaluation of preschool children playing five commercially available mobile computer games, the results of which will inform the user-led redesign of 'Space Vision', a serious mobile game for early identification and home-monitoring of vision problems for children of preschool age (3-5 years). Currently, Space Vision is a digitally gamified version of an established visual acuity testing method that uses a basic hidden-object-game mechanic. Initial testing revealed that the engagement and usability of Space Vision must be improved to maintain attention for repeated use. Though theories of human gameplay motivation provide the abstract components necessary to transpose this test into an immersive gameplay experience, they do not operationalise specific game design decisions for our target age group. To address this, we conducted a small-scale evaluation with 15 preschool children playtesting five successful children's games as the first step in our user-centred design process to inform the process of creating a more engaging and motivating prototype of Space Vision.