Digital self-control tools (DSCTs) help people control their time and attention on digital devices, using interventions like distraction blocking or usage tracking. Most studies of DSCTs’ effectiveness have focused on whether a single intervention reduces time spent on a single device. In reality, people may require combinations of DSCTs to achieve more subjective goals across multiple devices. We studied how DSCTs can address individual needs of university students (n = 280), using a workshop where students reflect on their goals before exploring relevant tools. At 1-3 month follow-ups, 95% of respondents still used at least one type of DSCT, typically applied across multiple devices, and there was substantial variation in the tool combinations chosen. We observed a large increase in self-reported digital self-control, suggesting that providing a space to articulate goals and self-select appropriate DSCTs is a powerful way to support people who struggle to self-regulate digital device use.

Can immersive virtual reality (IVR) serve as an effective venue for learning and training? The promise of learning in IVR lies in its affordances for motivating learners to engage in generative processing (i.e., cognitive processing aimed at making sense of the material). The pitfall of learning in IVR is that it can distract learners so they engage in extraneous processing (i.e., cognitive processing that does not support the instructional goal). This paper reviews (1) media comparison research we have conducted on the effectiveness of learning academic content and skills in IVR versus learning with conventional media and (2) value-added research we have conducted concerning which features can improve the instructional effectiveness of learning in IVR. The paper includes implications for practice and for further work in the area. Overall, the paper focuses on the challenges associated with determining how to reduce the distracting aspects of IVR, maintain the motivating aspects of IVR, and guide the learner towards the core instructional material.

Body ownership illusions (BOIs) occur when participants experience that their actual body is replaced by a body shown in virtual reality (VR). Based on a systematic review of the cumulative evidence on BOIs from 111 research articles published in 2010 to 2021, this article summarizes the findings of empirical studies of BOIs. Following the PRISMA guidelines, the review points to diverse experimental practices for inducing and measuring body ownership. The two major components of embodiment measurement, body ownership and agency, are examined. The embodiment of virtual avatars generally leads to modest body ownership and slightly higher agency. We also find that BOI research lacks statistical power and standardization across tasks, measurement instruments, and analysis approaches. Furthermore, the reviewed studies showed a lack of clarity in fundamental terminology, constructs, and theoretical underpinnings. These issues restrict scientific advances on the major components of BOIs, and together impede scientific rigor and theory-building.

ybersickness has been one of the main impediments to the widespread adoption of Virtual Reality for decades. It has been argued that several factors can influence the occurrence of cybersickness, such as technical factors, interaction design, but also users’ demographics and their perceived presence. Yet, previous studies had comparably small sample sizes and demographically homogeneous samples; comparisons across studies (e.g., regarding demographic factors) are challenging due to the large variation in the studied virtual environments. In this paper, we address these limitations and report the results of a lab-in-the-field experiment on cybersickness with a large and heterogeneous sample of $N =837$ participants who navigated and interacted inside a virtual environment (ages 18–80, $M = 29.34, SD = 9.50$, 431 males, 400 females, 6 non-binaries and other). We found that female participants and participants with lower VR experience were more susceptible to experiencing higher levels of cybersickness. Participants’ cybersickness levels increased with the time spent in VR and with the distance traversed in the virtual world up to a point, above which reported levels declined. We also found a link between higher levels of cybersickness and reduced head motion, as well as between lower levels of cybersickness and more head motion, which led them to explore more of the virtual environment. In contrast to past studies, we did not find any evidence suggesting an effect of age on cybersickness, nor a negative correlation between presence and cybersickness. Based on our results, we derived a model that achieves a mean classification accuracy of 67.1% for two levels of cybersickness using demographic, user experience, and behavioral data in VR.

Pedagogical agents are theorized to increase humans’ effort to understand computerized instructions. Despite the pedagogical promises of VR, the usefulness of pedagogical agents in VR remains uncertain. Based on this gap, and inspired by global efforts to advance remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted an educational VR study in-the-wild (N = 161). With a 2 × 2 + 1 between subjects design, we manipulated the appearance and behavior of a virtual museum guide in an exhibition about viruses. Factual and conceptual learning outcomes as well as subjective learning experience measures were collected. In general, participants reported high enjoyment and had significant knowledge acquisition. We found that the agent’s appearance and behavior impacted factual knowledge gain. We also report an interaction effect between behavioral and visual realism for conceptual knowledge gain. Our findings nuance classical multimedia learning theories and provide directions for employing agents in immersive learning environments.

This paper reports findings from a between-subjects experiment that investigates how different learning content representations in virtual environments (VE) affect the process and outcomes of learning. Seventy-eight participants were subjected to an immersive virtual reality (VR) application, where they received identical instructional information, rendered in three different formats: as text in an overlay interface, as text embedded semantically in a virtual book, or as audio. Learning outcome measures, self-reports, and an electroencephalogram (EEG) were used to compare conditions. Results show that reading was superior to listening for the learning outcomes of retention, self-efficacy, and extraneous attention. Reading text from a virtual book was reported to be less cognitively demanding, compared to reading from an overlay interface. EEG analyses show significantly lower theta and higher alpha activation in the audio condition. The findings provide important considerations for the design of educational VR environments.

A 2×2 between-subjects experiment (a) investigated and compared the instructional effectiveness of immersive virtual reality (VR) versus video as media for teaching scientific procedural knowledge, and (b) examined the efficacy of enactment as a generative learning strategy in combination with the respective instructional media. A total of 117 high school students (74 females) were randomly distributed across four instructional groups - VR and enactment, video and enactment, only VR, and only video. Outcome measures included declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge, knowledge transfer, and subjective ratings of perceived enjoyment. Results indicated that there were no main effects or interactions for the outcomes of declarative knowledge or transfer. However, there was a significant interaction between media and method for the outcome of procedural knowledge with the VR and enactment group having the highest performance. Furthermore, media also seemed to have a significant effect on student perceived enjoyment, indicating that the groups enjoyed the VR simulation significantly more than the video. The results deepen our understanding of how we learn with immersive technology, as well as suggest important implications for implementing VR in schools.