The Role of Sensorimotor Contingencies and Eye Scanpath Entropy in Presence in Virtual Reality: A Reinforcement...

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Sensorimotor contingencies (SC) are crucial for perceiving the world through bodily interaction.
• Virtual reality (VR) applications that naturally afford SC are hypothesized to increase Place Illusion (PI), a key component of presence.
• Empirical evidence for the link between SC and PI in VR remains largely anecdotal.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically investigate the relationship between sensorimotor contingencies (SC) and Place Illusion (PI) in virtual reality.
• To determine if users prefer VR environments with more natural SC.
• To explore the correlation between eye movement patterns and subjective PI.

Main Methods:

• A reinforcement learning (RL) paradigm was employed with 26 participants in a VR environment.
• An RL agent proposed sequential changes to 5 factors: vision (mono/stereo), head tracking (3/6 DOF), sound (mono/spatialized), resolution (low/high), and color scheme.
• Participants accepted or rejected proposed changes, with the first 4 factors representing SC and the last not.

Main Results:

• Participants were significantly more likely to accept changes that increased SC compared to changes in non-SC factors (color).
• Mean eye scanpath entropy decreased over the course of the VR experience.
• A negative correlation was found between final eye scanpath entropy and questionnaire-based assessments of PI.

Conclusions:

• Virtual reality systems that provide more natural sensorimotor contingencies are preferred by users.
• Decreased eye scanpath entropy serves as an objective measure correlating with subjective Place Illusion in VR.
• These findings provide empirical support for the SC-PI hypothesis in virtual reality environments.