Accurate temporal expectations support interaction in virtual reality (VR), yet it remains unclear whether the internal models that guide such expectations in the real world transfer unchanged to immersive VR. We report two experiments examining expected durations of gravity-driven motion across real and virtual environments. In Experiment 1, participants imagined a ball rolling down ramps in a physical lab, a 1:1 VR replica, and an up-scaled VR room and produced the time the imagined process would take. Results revealed systematic distortions: durations were underestimated in VR relative to the physical lab, and larger virtual spaces elicited longer durations. Experiment 2 assessed whether participants incorporated gravity laws into their simulations. Although gravitational acceleration was consistently underestimated, it was incorporated in both real and virtual environments. Our findings show that VR and its spatial scale bias temporal expectations, with implications for the design of temporally coherent and physically plausible VR experiences.

Temporal regularities and the timing of events and actions such as anticipating enemy movements or planning one’s next move are essential components of almost every video game. Thus, to succeed in video games, it is advantageous to anticipate events and prepare relevant actions before they occur. This work explores whether elapsed time can be used as a predictive cue for implicitly anticipating events in video games. Inspired by findings from psychology, we implemented multiple time-event correlations in a custom video game by pairing specific delays with specific game events. Participants had to shoot targets that appeared at different locations. After a certain delay (e.g., 0.8 s), the targets appeared more frequently (80 % of all appearances) at a specific location (e.g., left up). Our analysis of 25 participants provides evidence that players implicitly learned the implemented time-event correlations and used them to anticipate the location of upcoming targets. This led to improved game performance. Although no participant realised the implemented temporal regularities, targets were shot faster when preceded by the frequently paired delay. Our findings pave the way for game developers and researchers alike to more creatively combine human temporal processing with temporal aspects of video games.

Virtual reality (VR) allows to embody avatars—the digital self-representation of the user. An avatar’s appearance can change users’ perception and behavior—a phenomenon known as the Proteus effect. Previous work found that athletic avatars can reduce heart rate and perceived exertion during physical effort. Although these findings are promising to create more effective VR exercises, they have not been replicated yet. Hence, the reliability and consistency of such effects is unknown. Therefore, we conducted a study with 32 participants to investigate physiological and perceptual effects of athletic avatars while cycling in VR following a standardized exercise protocol. We could not find effects of the avatars’ athletic appearance on heart rate, perceived exertion, and imagined velocity. Our findings indicate that athletic avatars do not necessarily affect users during physical exertion. We discuss potential factors that can cause the Proteus effect fail to occur.

Users’ expectations about systems alter how they interact with them, thereby influencing their experience. Latency is also known to alter experience and performance in interactive systems, particularly in video games. Currently, it is unclear if users’ expectations influence latency-based effects. We report the results of an experiment (N = 24) in which participants played a video game with four levels of phantom latency (30 ms, 60 ms, 90 ms, and 120 ms). Crucially, all rounds were played with 75 ms of actual latency, we merely changed its presentation in the game. We show that a high phantom latency reduces game experience and performance. Participants were least accurate and effective when playing with 120 ms while feeling the least competent and tensest. We concluded that the effects of latency are partly expectation-based. Latency researchers, developers, and gamers must be aware of the effects induced by the expectation of latency.

Avatars are used to represent users in virtual reality (VR) and create embodied experiences. Previous work showed that avatars’ stereotypical appearance can affect users’ physical performance and perceived exertion while exercising in VR. Although sweating is a natural human response to physical effort, surprisingly little is known about the effects of sweating avatars on users. Therefore, we conducted a study with 24 participants to explore the effects of sweating avatars while cycling in VR. We found that visualizing sweat decreases the perceived exertion and increases perceived endurance. Thus, users feel less exerted while embodying sweating avatars. We conclude that sweating avatars contribute to more effective exergames and fitness applications.

Feeling ownership of a virtual body is crucial for immersive experiences in VR. Knowledge about body ownership is mainly based on rubber hand illusion (RHI) experiments in the real world. Watching a rubber hand being stroked while one’s own hidden hand is synchronously stroked, humans experience the rubber hand as their own hand and underestimate the distance between the rubber hand and the real hand (proprioceptive drift). There is also evidence for a decrease in hand temperature. Although the RHI has been induced in VR, it is unknown whether effects in VR and the real world differ. We conducted a RHI experiment with 24 participants in the real world and in VR and found comparable effects in both environments. However, irrespective of the RHI, proprioceptive drift and temperature differences varied between settings. Our findings validate the utilization of the RHI in VR to increase our understanding of embodying virtual avatars.