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Effects of interpersonal distance during interactions with avatars in virtual environments
IOP 2016
288 Effects of interpersonal distance during interactions with avatars in virtual environments Galina Ya Menshikova, Olga A. Saveleva, Yury P. Zinchenko Lomonosov Moscow State University Psychology Department, Moscow, Russia In social interactions body and eye movements are both necessary to provide a constructive dialogue between communicators. Behavioral patterns during social interactions depend on many factors including social attitudes, such as prejudice based on race/ethnicity appearance. The aim of our study was to study the participant’s behavior when interacting with avatars of different ethnic appearances in virtual environment. Previously it has been shown that social interactions in virtual worlds are governed by the same social norms as interactions in the real world (Yee et al., 2007). So using Vittools.4.0 we constructed four virtual scenes to investigate the effects of social interactions with avatars of different ethnic appearance. Each scene represented a living room in the center of which a group of three avatars of the same race/ ethnic appearance was located. The avatars by appearances represented three ethnic groups namely Russians, Tatars and Dagestanis. Virtual scenes were presented using the CAVE virtual reality system Barco Ispace 4. All participants (Russian, 32 F, 24 M, age range 18-34) were tested on the memory task which was to walk around each avatar in a group and remember all the details of its appearance. During the execution participant’s body and eye movements were recorded. Then participants answered the questions about details of avatar’s appearances and filled out two questionnaires assessing their presence effect and ethnic attitudes. Behavioral characteristics were analyzed including average minimal and maximal interpersonal distances between the participant and avatars of a certain ethnic group, the average time spent near avatars of a certain ethnic appearance, the time spent in a zone “eye-to-eye contact”, some eye movement parameters (fixation counts and durations, blink counts, saccade amplitudes). The results showed the compensation effects in interpersonal distances: shorter - with the “like me” avatars which represented subject’s ethnic appearance and longer - with the avatars of other ethnic groups. The percentage of time spent near the avatars and in a zone “eye-to-eye contact” also reflected the ethnic preferences: longer for “like me” avatars (22% and 13%) and shorter for the avatars of different ethnicity (16% and 7%). Significant differences in eye movement characteristics during interaction with avatars of different ethnic groups were also revealed. The obtained results could be of great importance for developing complex methods of testing the behavioral patterns during social interactions. The study was funded by Russian Scientific Fund project № 15-18-00109.
163
central and peripheral squares with a gap demarcating a square in the middle. The central square appears to float relative to the peripheral one. It was shown that drift illusions were strongly affected by eye movements (Kitaoka, 2010). Early it was proposed the role of macro eye movements in perception of motion illusions: eye movements induced retinal motion blur which differed for central and peripheral spines, causing a seeming shift in motion. More recently the impact of micro eye movements was shown for the Enigma illusion (Troncoso et al., 2008). Unfortunately not much is known about the impact of micro eye movement in the “Spine drift” illusion perception. The aim of our study was to reveal the role of macro and micro eye movements in the “Spine drift” illusion perception. The original display of the illusion was changed to construct four modified variants: for the first three variants the orientation of each spine of the central square was shifted by 30°, 60°, 90° respectively; for the forth variant all spines of the central square were oriented in random order. Twenty four observers (15F, 9M, age range 16-25) were tested. They perceived the illusion display for 10 s and then were asked to estimate the strength of illusory motion on a scale of 1-5. During the performance eye movements were recorded. Microsaccades were determined with the algorithm reported in Engbert and Kliegl (2003). The results showed that the differences in spine orientations of the central and surround squares were the clue cause of illusion perception: the illusion strength was highest for the original display and then reduced gradually with decreasing differences between spine orientations of the central and peripheral squares. For the randomly oriented spines the strength was medium. Differences in fixation durations and microsaccade counts were correlated with subjective ratings. No significant differences for saccade counts were found. Individual parameters of eye movements varied over a wide range when observing the illusion. Our results indicate that micro and macro movements may be considered as reliable indicators of the illusion perception. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.07.468
313 Study on systemic and informational processes in the brain while experiencing musical emotions Elizaveta Galperinaa, Alexei Meklera, Alexander Mussa, Olga Kruchininaa,b, Egor Spiridonova a Saint-Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia b Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry RAS, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.07.467
291 The role of eye movements in the ‘Spine Drift” illusion perception Galina Ya Menshikova, Polina O. Krivykh Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Studying visual illusions provides researchers with important insights into the rules of brain mechanisms for visual processing. Recently new motion illusions were appeared and striking one was the “Spine Drift” illusion. The illusion display consists of spindly thingies (“spines”) having an orientation differing by 90° for the
Our study aimed revealing the peculiarities of systemic and informational processes in the human brain while experiencing emotions of different modalities produced by the music listening. Twenty-two musical excerpts were selected for experiment. Selection was based on the experts’ evaluations. Each of these excerpts stimulates emotions from one of the groups: positive (interest, joy, surprise), negative “sthenic” (anger, fear) and negative “asthenic” (grief, guiltiness). All excerpts had timing of forty seconds to two minutes. All of compositions we used were academic instrumental music played by symphonic orchestra. This approach gave uniformity of the listening staff and excluded the influencing the emotions by the factors of genre and instrumental cast. In the psychophysiological experiment (20 subjects, healthy, 18 – 34 y.o., having no musical professional training), we made recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) recordings during the listening to the selected excerpts. We
288 Effects of interpersonal distance during interactions with avatars in virtual environments Galina Ya Menshikova, Olga A. Saveleva, Yury P. Zinchenko Lomonosov Moscow State University Psychology Department, Moscow, Russia In social interactions body and eye movements are both necessary to provide a constructive dialogue between communicators. Behavioral patterns during social interactions depend on many factors including social attitudes, such as prejudice based on race/ethnicity appearance. The aim of our study was to study the participant’s behavior when interacting with avatars of different ethnic appearances in virtual environment. Previously it has been shown that social interactions in virtual worlds are governed by the same social norms as interactions in the real world (Yee et al., 2007). So using Vittools.4.0 we constructed four virtual scenes to investigate the effects of social interactions with avatars of different ethnic appearance. Each scene represented a living room in the center of which a group of three avatars of the same race/ ethnic appearance was located. The avatars by appearances represented three ethnic groups namely Russians, Tatars and Dagestanis. Virtual scenes were presented using the CAVE virtual reality system Barco Ispace 4. All participants (Russian, 32 F, 24 M, age range 18-34) were tested on the memory task which was to walk around each avatar in a group and remember all the details of its appearance. During the execution participant’s body and eye movements were recorded. Then participants answered the questions about details of avatar’s appearances and filled out two questionnaires assessing their presence effect and ethnic attitudes. Behavioral characteristics were analyzed including average minimal and maximal interpersonal distances between the participant and avatars of a certain ethnic group, the average time spent near avatars of a certain ethnic appearance, the time spent in a zone “eye-to-eye contact”, some eye movement parameters (fixation counts and durations, blink counts, saccade amplitudes). The results showed the compensation effects in interpersonal distances: shorter - with the “like me” avatars which represented subject’s ethnic appearance and longer - with the avatars of other ethnic groups. The percentage of time spent near the avatars and in a zone “eye-to-eye contact” also reflected the ethnic preferences: longer for “like me” avatars (22% and 13%) and shorter for the avatars of different ethnicity (16% and 7%). Significant differences in eye movement characteristics during interaction with avatars of different ethnic groups were also revealed. The obtained results could be of great importance for developing complex methods of testing the behavioral patterns during social interactions. The study was funded by Russian Scientific Fund project № 15-18-00109.
163
central and peripheral squares with a gap demarcating a square in the middle. The central square appears to float relative to the peripheral one. It was shown that drift illusions were strongly affected by eye movements (Kitaoka, 2010). Early it was proposed the role of macro eye movements in perception of motion illusions: eye movements induced retinal motion blur which differed for central and peripheral spines, causing a seeming shift in motion. More recently the impact of micro eye movements was shown for the Enigma illusion (Troncoso et al., 2008). Unfortunately not much is known about the impact of micro eye movement in the “Spine drift” illusion perception. The aim of our study was to reveal the role of macro and micro eye movements in the “Spine drift” illusion perception. The original display of the illusion was changed to construct four modified variants: for the first three variants the orientation of each spine of the central square was shifted by 30°, 60°, 90° respectively; for the forth variant all spines of the central square were oriented in random order. Twenty four observers (15F, 9M, age range 16-25) were tested. They perceived the illusion display for 10 s and then were asked to estimate the strength of illusory motion on a scale of 1-5. During the performance eye movements were recorded. Microsaccades were determined with the algorithm reported in Engbert and Kliegl (2003). The results showed that the differences in spine orientations of the central and surround squares were the clue cause of illusion perception: the illusion strength was highest for the original display and then reduced gradually with decreasing differences between spine orientations of the central and peripheral squares. For the randomly oriented spines the strength was medium. Differences in fixation durations and microsaccade counts were correlated with subjective ratings. No significant differences for saccade counts were found. Individual parameters of eye movements varied over a wide range when observing the illusion. Our results indicate that micro and macro movements may be considered as reliable indicators of the illusion perception. doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.07.468
313 Study on systemic and informational processes in the brain while experiencing musical emotions Elizaveta Galperinaa, Alexei Meklera, Alexander Mussa, Olga Kruchininaa,b, Egor Spiridonova a Saint-Petersburg State Pediatric Medical University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia b Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry RAS, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2016.07.467
291 The role of eye movements in the ‘Spine Drift” illusion perception Galina Ya Menshikova, Polina O. Krivykh Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Studying visual illusions provides researchers with important insights into the rules of brain mechanisms for visual processing. Recently new motion illusions were appeared and striking one was the “Spine Drift” illusion. The illusion display consists of spindly thingies (“spines”) having an orientation differing by 90° for the
Our study aimed revealing the peculiarities of systemic and informational processes in the human brain while experiencing emotions of different modalities produced by the music listening. Twenty-two musical excerpts were selected for experiment. Selection was based on the experts’ evaluations. Each of these excerpts stimulates emotions from one of the groups: positive (interest, joy, surprise), negative “sthenic” (anger, fear) and negative “asthenic” (grief, guiltiness). All excerpts had timing of forty seconds to two minutes. All of compositions we used were academic instrumental music played by symphonic orchestra. This approach gave uniformity of the listening staff and excluded the influencing the emotions by the factors of genre and instrumental cast. In the psychophysiological experiment (20 subjects, healthy, 18 – 34 y.o., having no musical professional training), we made recorded electroencephalograms (EEG) recordings during the listening to the selected excerpts. We