Cognitive Impact of Social Virtual Reality: Audience and Mere Presence Effect of Virtual Companions

Figure 5

The companion monitoring presence conditions, from the participant’s perspective within the immersive space. Note: the virtual environment setup from the participants’ perspective, displaying the companions and the TV screen with the stimuli: (a) a present nonhumanoid condition in which the participants believed that they were monitored through an interactive controlled virtual camera; (b) the humanoid presence condition, in which the participants believed they were monitored through the gaze of the humanoid character; (c) companion visually absent (none) condition, during which participants believed they could be monitored by either an AI or human, however, without being able to see the companion; (d) the image shows an IVE layout of a practice session environment when no interactive objects were present or implied.

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