CRII: CHS: Do virtual behaviors represent reality: Examining human behavioral validity in virtual reality interactions

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Virtual reality is becoming commonplace to study human behavior because it affords simulations of various situations, thus is advantageous for standardized training, education, and experimental research. However, virtual reality may not contain all sensory cues (e.g., smell, scent) and non-perceptual factors (e.g., consequence, time pressure) that would evoke behaviors normally exhibited in the real world. There is limited research on behavioral validity of participants in virtual reality experiments. Thus, the principal goal of this research is to study the validity of human behavior in virtual reality, and thereby strengthen the transferability and generalizability of findings. Researchers will benefit from this work, as they will be able to apply the postulated perceptual-behavioral framework. Society in general will benefit, as private industry will be able to leverage the outcomes and guidelines to yield enhanced virtual reality technologies and other consumer products. There are two primary research objectives. (1) Understand effects of immersion on perceptual-behavioral relationship in an immersive virtual environment. Immersion is a quantifiable measure of virtual reality. A more immersive virtual environment will offer, for example, more extensive cues than a less immersive virtual environment. (2) Study and characterize non-perceptual factors that influence behavioral validity in an immersive virtual environment. Non-perceptual factors include time pressure and consequences (but not life or death because it is virtual). Behaviors (performance and actions) exhibited by participants will be examined in both research objectives. Empirical experiments will be conducted to collect quantitative and qualitative data to support the investigation driven by these two research objectives.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.