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Transformative Realities: Unleashing the Potential of Virtual Reality for Enhancing Usability and Behavioural Change

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Universitat de Barcelona. Facultat de Psicologia

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[emg] this thesis, we have explored how to enhance the usability, applicability, and practical implications of Immersive Virtual Reality by considering the challenges and opportunities associated with this technology. The thesis encompassed various domains from a multidisciplinary perspective to investigate these topics and advance the knowledge in the field. The research areas included addressing the usability aspect to provide solutions for simulator sickness in VR, investigating the relationship between embodiment and gradual changes in the light of the change blindness phenomenon to expand our understanding of their applicability in VR, and finally, exploring the practical, real-life applications of VR self-counselling through different virtual body representations in the context of personal problems and nicotine dependence.
Our research first addressed the significant technical challenge of simulator sickness, which is still prevalent in virtual reality systems. In Simulator Sickness Experiments, we found that altering the lighting parameter within a virtual environment could significantly mitigate simulator sickness by allowing faster movement, presenting a simple solution for future virtual environment design. Building on prior knowledge, our results showed that introducing a darker light at the beginning of the VR scenario could lead to faster movements of participants by enhancing the VR's overall usability and participant experience.
Subsequently, we extended our investigation to the embodiment, a fundamental aspect of immersive VR. In the Qigong Experiment, we focused on the issue of change blindness - a phenomenon where alterations in visual stimuli go unnoticed by the observer. This relationship is studied in a VR scenario of a Qigong training session, during which the participant's and the instructor's virtual bodies underwent gradual but profound transformations. Our findings revealed that these changes in the instructor body essentially went unnoticed by most participants, providing insights into the applicability of the intriguing intersection of these two phenomena for VR applications.
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Moving forward, we investigated and exploited a paradigm for VR self-conversation, a method previously used to help change perspectives on personal problems. In Self-Dialogue with a Virtual Future Self Experiments, we considered the potential of VR self-counselling by comparing different counsellor representations to alleviate personal problems and its potential application in nicotine addiction research. Our first study, which compared lookalike, future, and generic counsellor representations in self-conversations about a personal problem, showed that a generic, gender-matched virtual body as the counsellor representation significantly improved psychological outcomes. In our second study that investigated VR self-conversation for nicotine dependence, we adopted a perspective that used the future self-continuity approach with VR self-counselling, enabling participants to have a self-conversation with smoker and non-smoker versions of their future selves, and compared these representations with their lookalike counsellor representation. Our results revealed considerable differences in pre-VR and post-VR behavioural nicotine dependence measures when the counsellor was depicted as a future self who continued to smoke.
This thesis investigated technical challenges and the usability of VR technology, offered new insights into the embodiment and change blindness, and expanded knowledge on the applications of VR self-conversation in dealing with personal and addiction-related issues. Overall, the transformative potential of VR was explored through multiple facets of VR, starting from a technical challenge, and moving to practical applications that demonstrated how immersive VR can lead to behavioural change.

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[spa] En esta tesis, exploramos la mejora de la usabilidad y aplicabilidad de la Realidad Virtual Inmersiva (RVI) desde una óptica multidisciplinaria, abordando tanto desafíos técnicos como prácticos. Central en nuestro trabajo fue la mitigación de la cinetosis en RV, donde identificamos que ajustes en la iluminación de entornos virtuales pueden mejorar notablemente la experiencia del usuario.
En el campo de la personificación virtual, investigamos cómo la percepción humana interactúa con cambios sutiles en entornos virtuales. Nuestro experimento en un escenario de Qigong virtual reveló que transformaciones graduales en los cuerpos virtuales a menudo pasan desapercibidas, aportando una comprensión valiosa sobre la ceguera al cambio en la RVI.
Además, nuestra investigación se extendió al auto asesoramiento en RV, evaluando su efectividad en la gestión de problemas personales y la dependencia de la nicotina. A través de estudios comparativos de diferentes representaciones virtuales del terapeuta, descubrimos impactos significativos en la conducta y perspectivas de los participantes, abriendo nuevas vías en el tratamiento de adicciones.
En resumen, esta tesis contribuye significativamente al entendimiento de los desafíos técnicos y la usabilidad de la RVI. Ofrecemos nuevas perspectivas sobre la personificación virtual y la ceguera al cambio, y evidenciamos el potencial de la RV en el auto asesoramiento y la terapia de adicciones. Nuestros hallazgos destacan el poder transformador de la RVI en aplicaciones técnicas, prácticas y terapéuticas.

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Transformative Realities: Unleashing the Potential of Virtual Reality for Enhancing Usability and Behavioural Change