Learning in Affectively Intense Virtual Environments - LITE

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Abelin, Heldal, Schroeder, & Widestrom, 2000; Schuemie, Vanderstratten, Krijn, &
Vandermast, 2001; Welch, Blackmon, Lie, Mellers, & Start, 1996).
Presence has also been related to an individual difference measure in the form of
“immersive tendencies” (Witmer & Singer, 1998). Witmer and Singer’s immersive
tendency measure consists of 3 sub scales - Involvement, Focus, and Games - and have
been found to be significantly related to presence (Witmer & Singer, 1998). Involvement
denotes the tendency to become involved in activities. Focus is the sub scale that
represents the tendency to maintain focus on current activities. Sub scale Games is the
sub scale that relates to the tendency to play video games.
Although presence is traditionally assessed via self report, researchers have also
explored physiological measures of autonomic nervous system responses with respect to
presence. For example, Meehan and Insko propose that a virtual environment can be
viewed as “realistic” if it evokes a physiological response, which is, comparable to that
evoked in the real world for a real life experience (Meehan, Insko, Whitton, & Brooks,
2002). They conducted an experiment with consisted of 2 rooms in which a user is
supposed to pick up books and deposit them in a particular location in the other room,
which is at a virtual 20 feet drop. The environment is thus created to evoke a reaction of
fear in the user. Presence, heart rate change and skin conductance change were measured
during the experiment. The study concluded that multiple exposures to the environment
reduced the presence score. The use of passive haptics (in this case, a ledge where the
toes cannot touch the floor below to simulate the feeling of being on the edge of the
room) tended to increase the presence score. Presence was measured by the use of the
questionnaire developed by Slater (Usoh, Catena, Arman, & Slater, 2000). The study
found a positive correlation between the presence score and the change in skin
conductance among other autonomic nervous system measures (Meehan et al., 2002).
1.7. PILOT EXPERIMENT: VIRTUAL TERRORIST ATTACK ON THE
COMPUTER SCIENCE BUILDING
For our research on affectively intense learning, a research model and
methodology was developed to systematically examine factors that will lead to effective,
affectively intense learning. The main goal was to examine what leads to most effective
learning in affectively intense environments. This model is based on using a first