VR Realism Scale-Revalidation of contemporary VR headsets on a Polish sample.

This paper presents validation of the VR Simulation Realism Scale on a Polish sample. The scale enables a self-report measurement of perceived realism of a virtual environment in four main aspects of such realism-scene realism, audience behavior realism, audience appearance realism and sound realism. However, since the development of the original scale, the VR technology significantly changed. We aimed to respond to that change and revalidate the original measure in the contemporary setting. For the purpose of scale validation, data was gathered from six studies with 720 participants in total. Five experiments and one online survey were conducted to examine psychometric properties of the scale in accordance with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Evidence based on internal structure, relations to other variables and test content was obtained. The factorial structure of the original scale was tested and confirmed. The connections between realism and immersion, presence, aesthetics were verified. A suppressed relationship between realism and positive affect was discovered. Moreover, it was confirmed that scale result is dependent on the quality of VR graphics. Results of the analyses provide the evidence that the VR Simulation Realism Scale is a well-established tool that might be used both in science and in VR development. However, further research needs to be done to increase external validity and predictive power of the scale.

Adolescent mental health and activities in the period of social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the forms of youth activity (in a virtual environment and in the real world) and their mental health in the period of forced social isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings presented here are part of a larger international project (research-all.org). Methods: The subjects were students of primary and secondary schools in Kraków (N = 455), aged 11 to 18 (M = 15.38, SD = 2.10). The instruments used in this study were: the MHC-SF Karas, Cieciuch and Keyes wellbeing scale, the Connor-Davidson CD-RSC resilience scale, and the DASS-21 Lovibond scale designed to measure depression, anxiety and stress. The participants also reported the amount of time they spent on eight types of activity (online and offline) during and before social isolation. Results: Correlation analysis showed that the more time students spend actively in a virtual environment, the higher the level of depression (r = 0.27; p < 0.001), anxiety (r = 0.25; p < 0.001), stress (r = 0.25; p < 0.001). The duration of online activity is also negatively correlated with psychological well-being (r = -0.13; p = 0.013), emotional well-being (r = -0.15; p = 0.003) and social well-being (r = -0.12; p = 0.026). Well-being increases with a higher number of activities that are not mediated by a screen medium (r = 0.17; p = 0.001). Conclusions: Social isolation resulted in an increase in online activity both in education and in the social life of young people. The results obtained indicate the intensification of negative affectivity in adolescents who spend more time in the online environments. Moreover, the protective role of non-Internet physical and social activities for the mental health of young people has been demonstrated.

Moderators of Social Facilitation Effect in Virtual Reality: Co-presence and Realism of Virtual Agents.

Social facilitation has been researched for decades, but in the face of the development of virtual reality technology, new questions arise regarding the possibility of its occurrence in this environment -in the presence of computer-generated agents. Past research provided inconclusive answers: several experiments confirmed this possibility, but several others disagreed. On the other hand, previous studies have shown the important role of VR characteristics, such as realism or co-presence, in evoking other psychological phenomena. However, no study has investigated the interplay between the presence of computer-generated agents and perceived social realism in evoking social facilitation in virtual reality. To this end, the present randomized control study was conducted. The sample consisted of professional firefighters (N = 48), divided into an experimental group with virtual bystanders and a control group without them. Subjects were instructed to perform a rescue procedure in a virtual reality headset. The performance of participants was logged and they completed questionnaires regarding sense of presence in the virtual environment, perceived realism of the environment and perceived co-presence of virtual agents. The obtained results confirmed the role of social realism as a moderator of the occurrence of social facilitation in the presence of computer-generated agents. At the same time, the main effect of facilitation was not confirmed. These results support predictions that the subjective feeling of being in a realistic company of others may be more important in evoking social facilitation than objective facts. Furthermore, the results contribute to the debate regarding the mechanism of social facilitation, suggesting that simple augmentation of the environment with social distractors is not always enough, thus questioning the attentional explanation of the effect. Taken together, our results extend previous findings on social facilitation and open up new possibilities for designing effective virtual environments.