When Effort Becomes Visible: Facet-Level Shifts in Evaluation and Workload During VR Teamwork

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Prior research often mixes social cues with environmental load in virtual reality (VR) collaboration.
• Understanding the distinct impact of social cues like workload and speed is crucial for effective VR collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To isolate and investigate the effects of effort identifiability and peer effort (pace) on collaborative VR task performance.
• To differentiate the influence of accountability cues versus normative pace on user experience and outcomes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized TRACE-VR to manipulate effort identifiability (traceable vs. anonymous) and peer pace (high vs. low) in a 2x2 within-subjects design.
• Participants (n=32) collaborated with scripted co-actors in a VR crate-transportation task.
• Measured intrinsic motivation, social-evaluative load, NASA-TLX, and behavioral outcomes.

Main Results:

• Both effort identifiability and higher peer pace independently increased task completion rates.
• Perceived monitoring and temporal demand varied based on the combination of identifiability and pace.
• Identifiability and pace showed partial substitutability, influencing who finished but not necessarily the speed of finishers.

Conclusions:

• Effort identifiability and peer pace act as partially substitutable levers for shaping social-evaluative experiences and motivation in collaborative VR.
• Findings suggest distinct mechanisms through which accountability and normative pressure influence collaborative dynamics.
• Provides guidance for designing tempo-aware and accountability-aware collaborative VR systems.