Daniel Pietschmann

Chemnitz University of Technology · Institute for Media Research

A large number of previous studies have examined the effects of thin-ideal avatars on body image in virtual reality (VR), reporting mixed results. A possible explanation is that individuals' sense of embodiment (SoE) can influence the effects of avatars. Using the body discontinuity paradigm, a paradigm rarely used in prior studies, this study expl...

Video games can be understood as a series of interesting decisions, and the game controllers are key to making those decisions. Advances in gaming technology have encouraged the development of natural user interfaces (NUIs), which should provide a superior user experience as players are able to use preexisting mental models from physical interactio...

Presence is the perceptual illusion of non-mediation in virtual environments with breaks in presence (BIPs) marking events where the user’s attention is shifted away from the virtual to the physical environment. Using the concept of BIP allows to investigate specific episodes during virtual encounters, where the state of presence is interrupted. Or...

The phenomenon of non-mediation is an important factor in virtual experiences. Users seem to ignore their physical surroundings and become present in the virtual environment (VE). Assessing presence in VEs with continuous measures is an ongoing effort both to complement the data provided by self-report measures and to identify specific events durin...

Breaks in presence are considered a promising approach to investigate events where users are pulled out of their virtual experiences. In this paper, we argue that this methodology may also provide insights into the cognitive processes behind the presence experience. To this end, we combined breaks in presence with a modified version of the secondar...

For certain VR applications, the ability of users to switch into another user's visual perspective can add valuable new information. However, the most efficient type of perspective switch might not always be the best regarding the user experience. We investigated the effects of perspective switching (tracking shot vs. teleport) and the type of came...

This research report sought to understand how gamers experienced recent gaming sessions using traditional game controllers (gamepads) or natural user interfaces (NUIs, such as the Nintendo Wiimote). A secondary qualitative analysis of N=238 open-ended comments to a larger game controller experience survey were analysed for emergent themes, with χ2...

Assessing presence using questionnaires can yield interesting insights into the user experience in virtual environments, but is also limited both in terms of reliability and validity. Breaks in presence (BIPs) are an interesting alternative, given that the researcher can assess them correctly. Prior studies on the psychophysiology of BIPs followed...

Several studies have been presented with the goal to investigate long-term effects of aggressive video game play on aggressive behavior. While many researchers acknowledge that interpersonal differences may play an important role in this relationship, empirical evidence on this topic is scarce. A possible candidate for interindividual differences a...

In Kapitel 2 wurden verschiedene Konzepte zur Modellierung von User Experience in virtuellen Umgebungen diskutiert. Dabei wurde Presence als das komplexeste und gleichzeitig in der VR-Forschung am meisten verbreitete Konzept im Detail vorgestellt. Presence wird als subjektiver Zustand verstanden, bei dem die technische Vermittlung sensorischer Stim...

Das Erleben eines Nutzers während der Medienrezeption oder der Interaktion mit Technik wird in der Regel als Nutzererleben bzw. User Experience (UX) bezeichnet (Hassenzahl, Eckoldt & Thielsch, 2009). Der Begriff wird besonders im Forschungsgebiet der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion als Gesamtkonzept aller Erlebnisse mit einem System verstanden. In ande...

Das theoretische Konzept zu Spatial Mapping wurde bereits ausführlich diskutiert und mögliche Auswirkungen auf die Interaktion in virtuellen Umgebungen skizziert. Hierbei wurde besonders die Relevanz der Aufgabe des Nutzers in der virtuellen Umgebung betont.

With the rise of 3D cinema in recent years, 3D stereoscopic images have quickly conquered the entertainment industry. As a consequence, many scholars from different research disciplines study the effects of stereoscopy on user experience, task performance, or naturalism. However, parts of the population suffer from stereoblindness and are unable to...

With few exceptions, the role of user factors in the evaluation of virtual agents has largely been neglected. By taking them into account properly, researchers and virtual agent developers might be able to better understand interindividual differences in virtual agent evaluations. We propose the animacy attribution tendency as a novel user factor t...

Natural user interfaces are designed to be intuitive, and quick to learn. With the use of natural mapping, they rely on previous knowledge or skills from users by employing spatial analogies, cultural standards or biological effects. Virtual environments with a high interaction fidelity also use rich spatial information in addition to natural mappi...

When users are interacting collaboratively in a virtual environment, it cannot be guaranteed that every user has the same input device or that they have access to the same information. Our research aims at understanding the effects of such asymmetries on the user embodiment in collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). In order to do this, we have...

This chapter covers the topic of extensive modding in the area of experimental game research. In simplified terms, modding a computer game means changing specific aspects of how the game looks and feels to the user. This also includes applying minor changes to the game, such as changing the appearance of just a few objects, which does not require a...

Bereits die frühe VR-Forschung ging davon aus, dass die Kombination einer Vielzahl von angesprochenen Sinneskanälen die VR-Erlebnisse intensiviert (Cruz-Neira, Sandin & DeFanti, 1993; Pimentel & Teixeira, 1993; Steuer, 1992). Auch im MEC-Modell (Wirth et al., 2007) bereichern konsistente und kohärente multimodale sensorische Stimuli die Qualität de...

Nachdem in den vergangen Kapiteln grundlegende Konzepte zu User Experience (Kapitel 2), mentalen Modellen (Kapitel 3), binokularen Spatial Cues (Kapitel 4) und Natural Mapping (Kapitel 5) im Detail diskutiert wurden, werden die besprochenen Ansätze in diesem Kapitel für die Konzeption von Spatial Mapping zusammengeführt.

Virtuelle Realität (VR) wird bereits seit Jahrzehnten erfolgreich in der Industrie genutzt, etwa im Rahmen von Simulatoren zur Ausbildung von Piloten. In den letzten Jahren hat VR dank Oculus Rift und ähnlichen Produkten auch in Privathaushalten verstärkt Einzug gehalten. Dennoch existieren innerhalb virtueller Welten noch viele ungelöste Fragestel...

When users are interacting in a collaborative virtual environment it can neither be guaranteed that every user has the same input device nor that they have access to the same information. Our research aims at understanding the effects of such asymmetries on the user embodiment in cooperative multi-user environments. In order to do this, a generic i...

Genuine Forschungsdesigns zum Thema Social Presence in spielbasierten Lernumgebungen lagen bisher noch nicht im Fokus der Wissenschaft oder entsprechenden Forschungs‐ und Entwicklungsabteilungen der Hersteller von Game-Based-Learning-Software. Die vorhandenen Untersuchungen zu diesem Themenkomplex bezogen sich bislang entweder auf Social Presence i...

Neben den im letzten Kapitel diskutierten Darstellungsmodalitäten werden Interaktionen in virtuellen Umgebungen maßgeblich durch die Eingabemöglichkeiten bestimmt. Als Grundmodell für interaktive Kommunikation mit Technik sieht die HCI-Forschung die natürliche Face-to-Face-Kommunikation mit anderen Menschen (Durlak, 1987). Die Interaktion mit virtu...

he paradox of movie recipients enjoying experiences of fear and horror poses a similar question as the sad film paradox (Oliver, 1993) and can be considered as a metacognitive appraisal of media- induced fear reactions. A measure of the Thrill of Fearful Media Experiences (ToFM) was developed and validated in an online-survey. Results revealed thre...

UX is often compared between different systems or iterations of the same system. Especially when investigating human perception processes in virtual tasks and associated effects, experimental manipulation allows for better control of confounders. When manipulating modes of presentation, such as stereoscopy or visual perspective, the quality and qua...

Transmedia storytelling involves unfolding narratives across multiple media platforms, with each text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. Transmedia narratives for children have several limitations, as they require advanced media-literacy skills and appropriate cognitive, emotional, and moral development. Transmedia consume...

Recently, entertainment media has undergone a rapid evolution towards stereoscopic representation with industry claims of enriched user experiences (UX). These developments resulted in increased research on stereoscopic representation and its effects on UX. However, studies reported mostly negative and little to no beneficial effects of stereoscopi...

Full text available from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:525-3876

The paper utilizes the framework of mental models to understand UX processes in virtual environments. Users construct situation and interaction models when using interactive media. Especially interaction models benefit from a three-dimensional mapping of authentic input devices to the output space of the VE. Using this framework, we are constructin...

Full text available from http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:525-3876

A key question in the field of computer game studies is the user experience during the gameplay. One of the main factors influencing this experience is the control mechanism that players use to interact with the game system. With the launch of the Wii Console in 2006, Nintendo introduced an innovative concept of controlling computer games that allo...

Game Designer und Wissenschaftler sind gleichermaßen daran interessiert, das Spielerlebnis von Computerspielern und die ihm zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen zu identifizieren. Mit ebendiesen Erfahrungen der Nutzer während des Spielens beschäftigt sich dieses Buch aus einer medienpsychologischen Perspektive. Dabei werden Ansätze verschiedener Forschun...

Seit Menschen miteinander kommunizieren gibt es Persuasion, also das Bestreben, den Kommunikationspartner zu beeinflussen. Bereits in der Antike wurde dieses Handwerk in Form der klassischen Rhetorik systematisiert und gezielt eingesetzt. In den vergangenen Jahren gab es Versuche, diese etablierten Konzepte auf interaktive Medien zu übertragen, was...