An ERP study on sense of presence with respect to visual realism in virtual environment

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K23347
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 1002:Human informatics, applied informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: Maebashi Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Akama Takahide 前橋工科大学, 工学部, 講師 (00847733)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-09-11 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 臨場感 / バーチャルリアリティ / 事象関連電位 / ワーキングメモリ / 質感

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focused on confirming the effect of the realistic representation of virtual space on sense of presence and memory. In this study, there were the subjective evaluation about sense of presence by the one-pair comparison method and the memory task in which the level of presence affects task performance. In addition, cognitive processings were confirmed from event-related potentials during the memory task. The experimental results showed that subjects felt high sense of presence when the virtual space was consisted of three-dimensional objects with multiple surfaces and high-gradation reflections. However, no influence of the realistic representation of the virtual space was observed in the performance of the memory task and the EEG event-related potentials. These results suggest that although the realistic representation of virtual space affects subjective sense of presence, it may not strongly affect the memory of virtual space.

Free Research Field

実験心理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

これまで仮想空間の臨場感に関する研究は、臨場感向上のための技術研究が主で、臨場感に関連する神経活動に注目した研究は少なかった。今回の研究により、仮想空間の形態および光学表現が現実に近い場合に、主観的な臨場感が増すことが明らかとなった。一方で、仮想空間の形態および光学表現が仮想空間の立体に対する記憶成績および神経活動に与える影響は見られなかったことから、仮想空間の現実的表現が記憶に与える影響はあまり大きくない可能性が示された。したがって、記憶成績・臨場感・視覚認知の関連性を明らかにするためには、視覚表現以外も検討する必要性が示された。以上の点で、本研究は学術的な意義があったと考えられる。