Toet Alexander, Houtkamp Joske M, Vreugdenhil Paul E
TNO , Soesterberg , Netherlands.
Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands; Spatial Knowledge Systems, Alterra, Wageningen University and Research Center, Wageningen, Netherlands.
PeerJ. 2016 Feb 25;4:e1743. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1743. eCollection 2016.
This study investigated whether personal relevance influences the affective appraisal of a desktop virtual environment (VE) in simulated darkness. In the real world, darkness often evokes thoughts of vulnerability, threat, and danger, and may automatically precipitate emotional responses consonant with those thoughts (fear of darkness). This influences the affective appraisal of a given environment after dark and the way humans behave in that environment in conditions of low lighting. Desktop VEs are increasingly deployed to study the effects of environmental qualities and (architectural or lighting) interventions on human behaviour and feelings of safety. Their (ecological) validity for these purposes depends critically on their ability to correctly address the user's cognitive and affective experience. Previous studies with desktop (i.e., non-immersive) VEs found that simulated darkness only slightly affects the user's behavioral and emotional responses to the represented environment, in contrast to the responses observed for immersive VEs. We hypothesize that the desktop VE scenarios used in previous studies less effectively induced emotional and behavioral responses because they lacked personal relevance. In addition, factors like signs of social presence and relatively high levels of ambient lighting may also have limited these responses. In this study, young female volunteers explored either a daytime or a night-time (low ambient light level) version of a desktop VE representing a deserted (no social presence) prototypical Dutch polder landscape. To enhance the personal relevance of the simulation, a fraction of the participants were led to believe that the virtual exploration tour would prepare them for a follow-up tour through the real world counterpart of the VE. The affective appraisal of the VE and the emotional response of the participants were measured through self-report. The results show that the VE was appraised as slightly less pleasant and more arousing in simulated darkness (compared to a daylight) condition, as expected. However, the fictitious follow-up assignment had no emotional effects and did not influence the affective appraisal of the VE. Further research is required to establish the qualities that may enhance the validity of desktop VEs for both etiological (e.g., the effects of signs of darkness on navigation behaviour and fear of crime) and intervention (e.g., effects of street lighting on feelings of safety) research.
本研究调查了个人关联性是否会影响在模拟黑暗环境下对桌面虚拟环境（VE）的情感评估。在现实世界中，黑暗常常引发对脆弱性、威胁和危险的联想，并可能自动引发与这些想法相符的情绪反应（怕黑）。这会影响天黑后对特定环境的情感评估以及人类在低光照条件下在该环境中的行为方式。桌面虚拟环境越来越多地被用于研究环境质量以及（建筑或照明）干预对人类行为和安全感的影响。它们在这些方面的（生态）有效性关键取决于其正确处理用户认知和情感体验的能力。先前针对桌面（即非沉浸式）虚拟环境的研究发现，与沉浸式虚拟环境中观察到的反应相比，模拟黑暗对用户对所呈现环境的行为和情感反应影响较小。我们假设，先前研究中使用的桌面虚拟环境场景较少有效地引发情感和行为反应，是因为它们缺乏个人关联性。此外，诸如社会存在感的迹象和相对较高水平的环境光照等因素也可能限制了这些反应。在本研究中，年轻女性志愿者探索了一个代表荒芜（无社会存在感）的典型荷兰圩田景观的桌面虚拟环境的白天版本或夜间（低环境光照水平）版本。为了增强模拟的个人关联性，一部分参与者被引导相信虚拟探索之旅将为他们随后在与虚拟环境对应的现实世界中的游览做好准备。通过自我报告来测量参与者对虚拟环境的情感评估和情绪反应。结果表明，正如预期的那样，在模拟黑暗（与白天相比）条件下，虚拟环境被评估为稍微不那么宜人且更具刺激性。然而，虚构的后续任务没有情感影响，也没有影响对虚拟环境的情感评估。需要进一步研究以确定哪些特质可能会增强桌面虚拟环境在病因学（例如，黑暗迹象对导航行为和对犯罪的恐惧的影响）和干预（例如，街道照明对安全感的影响）研究方面的有效性。
