Virtual Reality and Immersion Tendency for Spatial Presence and Empathy

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 3
  In Poster Session: Technology and Social Spaces (San Diego)

Abstract

This study explored the use of immersive virtual reality (VR) for college students’ presence and empathy in relation to their immersion tendency. With the potential of a first-person narrative delivered through a head-mounted display (HMD), it was expected that immersive VR would provide highly engaging embodied experiences that can impact the way students develop the feeling of presence and empathy toward a VR movie. From a preliminary analysis with the data collected from 36 college students, we found a significant effect of immersive VR on students' spatial presence, and non-significant effect of VR type and immersion tendency on empathy. These results were interpreted based on previous studies on immersive VR and the embodied cognition perspective.

Authors

• Insook Han, Temple University

• Timothy Patterson, Temple University

• Hyangeun Ji, Temple University