Creating Virtual Experiences In Computer Mediated Environments

Although much excitement has arisen over the potential for "interactivity" on the Web, very little is understood about what exactly creates a sense of interactivity and what impact it has on user behavior. Businesses are spending millions of dollars to add interactivity to their Web sites, in the form of games, animated pictures, and personalization tools, without knowing exactly what impact this has on their customers. In this research, the critical components of this computer-mediated interactivity and, more broadly, the larger realm of virtual experiences that it can create are explored. In doing so, I investigate the impact of the new media capabilities on consumers' interpretations of these experiences and the product-based persuasion that results from them. Given that direct product experience is usually the optimal method for consumers to learn about product information (Berger and Mitchell 1989; Marks and Kamins 1988; Smith and Swinyard 1988; Wu and Shaffer 1987), one of a marketer's goals should be to strive for verisimilitude in any indirect communications. This research explores how the Web might emulate direct experience and how the effects of these virtual experiences might differ from those resulting from exposure to traditional advertising media. In order to measure the sense of experience within a computer-mediated environment, I employ the construct of telepresence. Telepresence is defined as a sense of presence in a mediated environment, wherein the user experiences the computer-mediated environment as less mediated than it actually is (Steuer 1992). This construct of telepresence is also used to evaluate the process by which media characteristics influence consumer responses to marketing communications. The two primary objectives of this research are to understand how telepresence is created and how it affects consumer response to computer-mediated communications. I explore two critical media characteristics that are hypothesized to influence telepresence: (1) user control and (2) media richness. The potential for user control is a critical element of interactivity (Lombard and Snyder-Duch 2001). In addition, on the Web, it is controllable by the marketer Web (Ariely 2000). Media richness represents the sensory breadth (number of communication channels) and depth (quality within each channel) of the stimuli (Steuer 1992). As the degree of telepresence increases, the more similar the mediated experience will be to an actual direct product experience. Thus, when a state of telepresence is created in a persuasive communication, marketers may expect consumers to develop more intense attitudes and beliefs toward the product and its attributes than they would in a more mediated communication experience, such as that typically engendered by television or print advertisements (Fazio and Zanna 1981). Two experiments are conducted using a 2 (media richness) X 2 (user control) design in a computer-mediated environment (Figure 1). Wine (Study 1) and face cream (Study 2) are used because of the importance of experience attributes in product selection and preference formation for these two categories. Control is operationalized as control over the form of the information - the order of information acquisition, holding the information content constant. "High user control" participants had control over the order in which they viewed the categories. These participants could view the categories in any order they desired, but were required to see all before exiting. The subjects in the "low user control" condition were guided through the topics in a pre-determined order. Media richness was operationalized via the modality of the medium. That is, media breadth was manipulated, while holding depth constant. In the low media richness condition participants were exposed to text and still pictures, with no sound. In the high media richness condition, full-motion video and sound were added. Both stimuli were pre-tested to to assure information equivalence. Telepresence is measured with a variation of the 7-item scale employed by Kim and Biocca (1997) and Novak et al. (2000). Attribute belief strength and product attitude intensity measures are also collected. The results show that both user control and media richness had significant positive influences on the creation of telepresence and on product attribute beliefs and overall attitudes toward the product. In Study 2, we also find a significant positive interaction effect between user control and media richness in the creation of telepresence. In both studies, telepresence was found to have a significant and positive impact on persuasion at both the attribute and product levels. Moreover, the results reveal the process by which this occurs; telepresence is shown to serve as a mediating variable in the relationship between these two media characteristics, represented through a "realism index," and attribute and product-level persuasion. Finally, I test two variations of the 7-item telepresence scale; comparisons of the results with those from previous studies provide further evidence of the unidimensionality of this scale and offer suggestions for future scale refinements. This study answers a number of key questions about consumer response to advertising in computer-mediated environments. This research has demonstrated a novel way of operationalizing control and media richness in a computer-mediated environment, and of measuring the role of telepresence in the process. A systematic program of research exploring the impact of the many facets of control and combinations of modalities on different types of individuals is necessary before we can be confident in our understanding of the impact of computer-mediated product experiences on consumer behavior.

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”.

Virtual Reality is not real life. Instead it is life-like creations using computer-generated scenarios. Human behavior is replicated in virtual scenarios, where every detail is controlled by computers, and in situations that can be repeated under the same conditions. Based on technology and design, the user can experience presence. In the virtual world, users are embodied in avatars that represent them and are the means to interact with the virtual environment. Avatars are graphical models that behave on behalf of the human behind them. The user avatar is a proxy that also backs interaction with others, allowing computer-mediated interactions. Analyses directed to understand people’s perceptions, personal and social behavior in computer mediated interactions, comprise a multidisciplinary area of study that involves, among others, computer science, psychology and sociology. In the last two decades a number of studies supported by Virtual Reality have been conducted to understand human behavior, in some cases the implications of the technology, or to reproduce artificial human behavior. This book presents a collection of studies from recognized researchers in the area.

This concise volume presents for the first time a coherent and detailed account of why we experience feelings of being present in the physical world and in computer-mediated environments, why we often don't, and why it matters - for design, psychotherapy, tool use and social creativity amongst other practical applications.

This book first explains autism, its prevalence, and some conventional intervention techniques, and it then describes how virtual reality technology can support autism intervention and skills training. The approaches and technologies covered include immersive virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. The tasks covered include emotion recognition, affective computing, teaching communication skills, imparting literacy skills, training for imitation skills, and joint attention skills. Most of the chapters assume no prerequisite knowledge of autism or virtual reality, and they are supported throughout with detailed references for further investigation. While the author is an engineer by profession, with specialist knowledge in robotics and computer-based platforms, in this book she adopts a user perspective and cites many real-life examples from her own experience. The book is suitable for students of cognitive science, and researchers and practitioners engaged with designing and offering technological assistance for special needs training.

Explores all aspects of interpersonal communication at work, from face-to-face meetings to new forms of computer mediated communication such as social media. Will help the reader achieve skilled interpersonal communication at work through the understanding of relevant theory and latest research, made clear in non-technical language with examples.

This volume addresses virtual reality (VR) -- a tantalizing communication medium whose essence challenges our most deeply held notions of what communication is or can be. The editors have gathered an expert team of engineers, social scientists, and cultural theorists for the first extensive treatment of human communication in this exciting medium. The first part introduces the reader to VR's state-of-the-art as well as future trends. In the next section, leading research scientists discuss how knowledge of communication can be used to build more effective and exciting communication applications of virtual reality. Looking ahead, the authors explore pioneering approaches to VR narratives, interpersonal communication, the use of 3D sound, and the building of VR entertainment complexes. In the final section, the authors zoom out to view the big picture -- the psychological, social, and cultural implications of virtual reality. Thought-provoking discussions consider important communication issues such as: * How will virtual reality influence perception of reality? * What are the legal issues defining communication in virtual reality? * What kind of cultural trends will this technology encourage?

In 1988, the NATO panel governing human sciences (Panel 8 on Defence Applica of Human and Bio-Medical Sciences) established a Research Study Group to synthe tions size information relevant to Advanced Technologies Applied to Training Design. During its first phase, the RSG established an active exchange of information on advanced tech nologies applied to training design and stimulated much military application of these tech nologies. With the increased emphasis on training throughout the alliance, Panel 8, during its April 1991 meeting decided to continue with Phase II of this RSG focusing in the area of advanced training technologies that were emerging within the alliance. In order to ac complish its mission, the RSG held a series of workshops. Leaders in technology and training were brought together and exchanged information on the latest developments in technologies applicable to training and education. This volume represents the last in a se ries based on the NATO workshops. In Part One, it details findings from the last work shop, Virtual Reality for Training; and in Part Two, we provide a summary perspective on Virtual Reality and the other emerging technologies previously studied. These include computer-based training, expert systems, authoring systems, cost-effectiveness, and dis tance learning. It is a natural extension to proceed from learning without boundaries to virtual envi ronments. From the extended classroom to the individual or team immersion in a distrib uted, virtual, and collaborative environment is an easy conceptual step.

This volume constitutes the revised selected papers of the First International Conference, ICCMSN 2008, held in Dunedin, New Zealand, in June 2009. The 19 revised papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 34 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on virtual environments and second life; knowledge networks and learning in social networks; applications and integration of social networking systems as well as social concepts associated with social networking.

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been developed commercially since the early 1990s [1]. Yet it is only with the growth of the Internet and other high-bandwidth links that VR systems have increasingly become networked to allow users to share the same virtual environment (VE). Shared YEs raise a number of interesting questions: what is the difference between face-to-face interaction and interaction between persons inside YEs? How does the appearance of the "avatar" - as the graphical representation of the user has become known - change the nature of interaction? And what governs the formation of virtual communities? This volume brings together contributions from social scientists and computer scientists who have conducted research on social interaction in various types of YEs. Two previous volumes in this CSCW book series [2, 3] have examined related aspects of research on YEs - social navigation and collaboration - although they do not always deal with VRIVEs in the sense that it is used here (see the definition in Chapter 1). The aim of this volume is to explore how people interact with each other in computer-generated virtual worlds.