Zhang, Yang, Jin, and Li have learned more about how the real environments in which virtual experiences take place influence those virtual experiences. They state that “The experience in virtual reality (VR) is unique, in that observers are in a real-world location while browsing through a virtual scene. . . . Participants performed distance judgments in VR, which rendered either virtual indoor or outdoor scenes. Experiments were also carried out in either real-world indoor or outdoor locations. . . . . our results suggest that both the virtual and real-world environments have an impact on distance judgment in VR. Especially, the real-world environment where a person is physically located during a VR experience influences the person’s distance estimation in VR.” The specific findings of this study are not as important as the fact that it makes it clear that researchers need to learn a great deal more about how the real environments in which VR experiences take place influence VR experiences/studies/etc.
Junjun Zhang, Xiaoyan Yang, Zhenlan Jin, and Ling Li. “Distance Estimation in Virtual Reality is Affected By Both the Virtual and the Real-World Environments.” i-Perception, in press, https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695211023956
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.