Learning in Affectively Intense Virtual Environments - LITE

39
red to signify blood for a body. Performance could also have been affected in the first and
third floors due to reduced usability of the narrow hallways and doors. Familiarity of the
actual building contributed to lesser disorientation. The understanding of these factors
can help develop a better virtual environment and gives a better insight into how they
affect the performance of the participant.
The arousal measurement tool which was GSR for the experiment did not
function as expected due to its extreme sensitivity. A more reliable measure would be
heart rate for such experiments. Another aspect that could be measured by means of a
questionnaire is the degree of motion sickness experienced. This can be classified under
the theme Methodology as well as a measurement tool.
Some methodological issues were uncovered during the course of the experiment.
The “Think Aloud” protocol did not yield benefits as expected due to the fact that the
participants found themselves too involved in the virtual environment that they forgot to
give emphasis on feedback. The “think aloud” protocol may also be a hindrance to task
execution in the environment. The usage of the 5 button mouse for control and navigation
in the virtual environment was also noted to be counter intuitive under most
circumstances. A majority of the participants had some experience with computer games
and both hands are generally used for control and navigation. The normal multimodal
usage of controls for the virtual environment had to be shifted to the mouse, since GSR
sensor electrodes were attached to the non-dominant hand of the participant. This
restricted movement on one hand and the other hand had to be used to control the avatar
in the virtual environment by the specially configured mouse functions. It was noted that
the wrong buttons were clicked during the experiment sometimes and a conscious effort
was required to work the mouse. Most complaints came from gamers who had past
experience in operating in similar virtual reality based games. Apart from that, sudden
movements on the non-dominant hand due to cramps or fatigue results in an erratic GSR
curve which induced error in the readings. It is concluded that a lesser obstructive mode
of affect measurement such as heart rate would be more appropriate for the experiment.