Imperceptible Body Transformation in Virtual Reality: Saliency of Self Representation

Overview

Journal iScience

Publisher Cell Press

Date 2023 Oct 25

PMID 37876610

Authors

Gizem Senel

Francisco Macia-Varela

Jaime Gallego

Hatice Pehlivan Jensen

Kasper Hornbaek

Mel Slater

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Change blindness (CB) is the perceptual phenomenon whereby people are blind to dramatic changes in their visual environment. In virtual reality (VR) a person's body can be substituted by a life-sized virtual one that moves synchronously with their real body movements as their self-representation. We consider whether CB occurs in VR, and whether there are differences in the case of changes to their own virtual body compared with the body of another. Forty people took part in a Qi Gong lesson in VR led by a virtual instructor. During the lesson both their own and the instructor's face dramatically changed in appearance. Overall, 73% and 85% did not notice the changes to their own and instructor's face respectively. People make iconic inferences about their visual surroundings without sampling detail, and reduced CB in the case of their own body may be a marker for self-representation.

Citing Articles

Desensitizing Anxiety Through Imperceptible Change: Feasibility Study on a Paradigm for Single-Session Exposure Therapy for Fear of Public Speaking.

Banakou D, Johnston T, Beacco A, Senel G, Slater M JMIR Form Res. 2024; 8:e52212.

PMID: 39037760 PMC: 11301124. DOI: 10.2196/52212.

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