Institute for Research in Open, Distance and eLearning, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences, Brig, Switzerland.
Department of Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2020 Dec;23(12):846-853. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2020.0065. Epub 2020 Aug 26.
Head-mounted displays enable social interactions in immersive virtual environments. However, it is yet unclear whether the technology is also suitable for collaborative work between remote group members. Previous research comparing group performance in nonimmersive computer-mediated communication and face-to-face (FtF) interaction yielded inconsistent results. For this reason, we set out to compare multi-user immersive virtual reality (IVR), video conferencing (VC), and FtF interaction in a group decision task. Furthermore, we examined whether the conditions differed with respect to cognitive load and social presence. Using the hidden profile paradigm, we tested 174 participants in a fictional personnel selection case. Discussion quality in IVR did not differ from VC and FtF interaction. All conditions showed the typical bias for discussing information that was provided for all participants (i.e., shared information) compared with information that was only disclosed to individual participants (i.e., unshared information). Furthermore, we found that IVR groups showed the same probability of solving the task correctly. Social presence in IVR was reduced compared with FtF interaction; however, we found no differences in cognitive load. In sum, our results imply that IVR can effectuate efficient group behavior in a modern working environment that is characterized by a growing demand for remote collaboration.
头戴式显示器可在沉浸式虚拟环境中实现社交互动。然而，目前尚不清楚该技术是否也适用于远程小组成员之间的协作工作。先前比较非沉浸式计算机中介交流和面对面（FtF）交互中的小组绩效的研究得出了不一致的结果。出于这个原因，我们着手在小组决策任务中比较多人沉浸式虚拟现实（IVR）、视频会议（VC）和 FtF 交互。此外，我们还检查了这些条件在认知负荷和社会存在感方面是否存在差异。我们使用隐藏配置范式，在一个虚构的人员选拔案例中测试了 174 名参与者。IVR 中的讨论质量与 VC 和 FtF 交互没有区别。所有条件都显示出与仅向个别参与者透露的信息（即非共享信息）相比，讨论提供给所有参与者的信息（即共享信息）的典型偏差。此外，我们发现 IVR 组解决任务的正确概率相同。与 FtF 交互相比，IVR 中的社会存在感降低了；但是，我们没有发现认知负荷方面的差异。总之，我们的结果表明，在现代工作环境中，远程协作需求不断增长，IVR 可以实现高效的小组行为。
