The actor-observer effect in virtual reality presentations

Journal article, 2001

The use of Virtual reality (VR) presentations are becoming a more and more frequent mean of communicating information and displaying data to large groups of viewers. Virtual reality presentations put heavy demands on reproduction of visual, aural and tactile information. A common situation in virtual reality presentations is that one actor acts in the virtual environment (VE), while a group of people observes the actors actions in the VE, often from the perspective of the actor. The current article aims to study actors (participants actively interacting with the VE) and observers (participants passively observing the actors interaction with the VE) evaluations of the VR presentation. In an experiment 16 actors and 16 observers either acted in or observed a VE and performed ratings of the quality of the presentation. The results showed that actors experienced higher presence and realism, and enjoyed the VR experience more than observers did. Observers on the other hand experienced that external events distracted their attention more than actors did. Finally, actors experienced more symptoms of simulation sickness. However, no differences between actors and observers were found for ratings of audio quality.