Designing self-presence in immersive virtual reality to improve cognitive performance—A research proposal

Abstract

With the increasing availability of immersive virtual reality (IVR) technologies, new opportunities to change individuals’ behavior become possible. Notably, recent research showed that by creating a full-body ownership illusion of a virtual avatar looking similar to Einstein, users’ cognitive performance can be enhanced. However, although research is quite consistent in reporting that visuomotor synchrony in IVR achieved with body tracking suffices to elicit body ownership illusions that change behavior, it is still unclear whether strengthening these visuomotor illusions with additional technological design elements, such as visuotactile feedback, can contribute to increase desired outcomes even more. In this research in progress paper, we aim to conduct a 2 (physical feedback: low vs. high) × 2 (avatar design: normal vs. high intelligence) between-subjects experiment in IVR to test this assumption. In addition to subjective measures, we use heart rate and electrodermal activity to assess the strength of self-presence induced through the illusions.