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Article
Frontal extents in virtual environments are not immune to underperception
Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics
  • Jonathan W. Kelly, Iowa State University
  • William Hammel, Iowa State University
  • Lori A. Sjolund, Iowa State University
  • Zachary D. Siegel, Iowa State University
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Accepted Manuscript
Publication Date
8-1-2015
DOI
10.3758/s13414-015-0948-8
Abstract

Distance is commonly underperceived by up to 50% in virtual environments (VEs), in contrast to relatively accurate real world judgments. Experiments reported by Geuss, Stefanucci, Creem-Regehr, and Thompson (2012) indicate that the exocentric distance separating two objects in a VE is underperceived when the objects are oriented in the sagittal plane (depth extents), but veridically perceived when oriented in a frontoparallel plane (frontal extents). The authors conclude that, “distance underestimation in the [VE] generalizes to intervals in the depth plane, but not to intervals in the frontal plane.” The current experiment evaluated an alternative hypothesis that the accurate judgments of frontal extents reported by Geuss et al. were due to a fortunate balance of underperception caused by the VE and overperception of frontal relative to depth extents. Participants judged frontal and depth extents in the classroom VE used by Geuss et al. and in a sparser VE containing only a grass-covered ground plane. Judgments in the classroom VE replicated findings by Geuss et al., but judgments in the grass VE show underperception of both depth and frontal extents, indicating that frontal extents are not immune to underperception in VEs.

Comments

This is a manuscript of an article published as Kelly, Jonathan W., William Hammel, Lori A. Sjolund, and Zachary D. Siegel. "Frontal extents in virtual environments are not immune to underperception." Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 77, no. 6 (2015): 1848-1853. doi: 10.3758/s13414-015-0948-8. Posted with permission.

Copyright Owner
The Psychonomic Society, Inc.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Jonathan W. Kelly, William Hammel, Lori A. Sjolund and Zachary D. Siegel. "Frontal extents in virtual environments are not immune to underperception" Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics Vol. 77 Iss. 6 (2015) p. 1848 - 1853
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jonathan_kelly/31/