VR technology impact on information perception:
recent research data
There are varying views on how the virtual reality technology influences on the human’s perception of the world. VR for an average user is a chance to transfer into the entirely different environment and receive the brand new sensory experiences. Before this very technology used to be associated only with the entertainment industry. But in 2018 people teach, build, cure, train and even develop with the help of VR. Therefore, its nature is still under the discussion. We’ve decided to make our own small research to find out the right answers and to ruin the stereotypes related to virtual reality and its impact on the information perception.
Let’s start with the figuring out what the “effect of immersion” is and how it works. The initial intention of VR technology creators was to illuminate the border between a human and a computer. It is aimed at the stimulation of feelings which in its turn form the real experience. The effect of immersion appears when a user leaves the real world completely and feels his presence in the virtual space.
The stormy interest to VR has emerged in the early 1990s when the first success has been achieved in the industry of entertainment. In the early 21st century the technology has improved and started to be used in the various spheres of people’s lives. The health care workers and the army were the first who recognized the high potential of using VR for teaching purposes. It let them create a cheaper and safer medium for imitating the learning environment which would be able to improve some of the skills and to teach how to use the gained knowledge in practice. This is one of the reasons why most studies in the foreign psychology are focused on exploring the virtual environment and the so-called “pedagogical agents”, the virtual characters whose aim is to increase the effectiveness of training based on VR.
Steffi Domagk, the German professor from the University of Erfurt, admits that the pedagogical agents contribute to heightening motivation for learning. It is related not only to some school or university programs. Also, the virtual reality technology is rapidly developing as simulations which are aimed at decreasing the quantity and the quality of mistakes during training in some risk industries such as surgery, nuclear physics, engineering, and many others. Domagk also explains that enhancing motivation can be achieved only if the agents communicate with students a lot or give the encouraging feedback. The other group of scientists, R. Moreno, Martin Reislein, G. Ozogul, has examined the non-verbal level. According to their research, the pedagogical agents have a positive impact on learning only when they use gestures extensively, for instance, they may point the objects in space or when the arrow is directed on the necessary area. Thus, the pedagogical agents support the cognitive processes and the accuracy of students, motivate them to keep working on exercises.
The group of Swiss scientists led by Y. Metrailler did the unusual experiment to understand the abilities of virtual training. The students were doing their practice in the virtual environment. They were formulating the theories, modeling the experiments and analyzing the results in the virtual laboratory. The experiment proved that the virtual environment has contributed to improving their specific and common knowledge in science.
The researchers described above demonstrate that the virtual reality is a perfect solution for enhancing the motivation of users. But how it works? The explanation was found by Williams D., Yee N., Caplan S. They’ve discovered that involvement in VR is connected with the real emotional affection of users to virtual characters. It is based on a complicated connection of the personal characteristics and their motivation. This very motivation was analyzed by scientists from a position of three groups of motives: the social, progressive and immersive ones. The social motives are characterized by a desire to start communication with other people and to find new friends. The progressive ones are aimed at self-development and achieving the new levels in the virtual environment. The immersive motives are about learning new staff and opening the new horizons.
According to the report, these very three groups make users spend time in virtual reality. The stronger impact of these motives is, the more powerful their desire to achieve it in real life is. Since people can’t make it real sometimes, the users look the alternative variants. The virtual environment then starts to have a direct influence on psychological and intellectual sides of the personality.
