Given the positive impact of virtual reality (VR) learning environments on students’ learning satisfaction, it is imperative to identify the key features within these environments that contribute to such satisfaction. This study examined how persuasive features enhance students’ learning satisfaction via psychological outcomes within a persuasive immersive virtual reality learning environment (IVRLE). Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), quantitative data obtained from 115 IVRLE users were analyzed. The results show that by leveraging persuasive features, such as unobtrusiveness, design aesthetics, primary task support, credibility support, dialog support, and perceived persuasiveness, educators can create immersive learning environments that effectively engage students cognitively and emotionally, thereby enhancing learning satisfaction. Among the direct determinants of students’ learning satisfaction, perceived enjoyment exhibited the strongest impact. These results underscore the relevance of designing VR learning environments as persuasive educational environments that shape learning behaviors and also caters to the psychological needs of students.

Abstract In this study, we explore whether the inclusion of monocular depth within a pseudo-3D picture gallery negatively affects visual search strategy and performance. Experimental design facilitated control of (i) the number of visible depth planes and (ii) the presence of semantic sorting. Our results show that increasing the number of visual depth planes facilitates efficiency in search, which in turn results in a decreased response time to target selection and a reduction in participant average pupil dilation—used for measuring cognitive load. Furthermore, results identified that search strategy is based on sorting, which implies that an appropriate management of semantic associations can increase search efficiency by decreasing the number of potential targets.

Abstract Capturing affective response to valent stimuli using eye tracking is of interest not only to academic research but also to commercial equipment developers (e.g. car dashboards). In order to investigate whether a low-cost eye tracker can effectively detect participants’ physiological response to negatively valent stimuli, 44 participants aged 19–24 (mean = 24.7, SD = 5.8) were recruited to complete the visual backward masking paradigm in a repeated-measure experimental design. Saccadic duration and pupil sizes were recorded using a lower-end 60-Hz tracker. Data was analysed using a mix of parametric and non-parametric tests. Our results suggest that valence in the form of fearful vs neutral faces has a significant main effect on both saccadic duration [V = 931, P < 0.001, d = 0.96] and pupil size [t(43) = 29.81, P < 0.001, d = 3.91)]. Our findings were further supported by Bayes factor analysis, which showed that saccadic duration data was 24 times more likely to occur, and pupil size measurement data was 89 times more likely, under the alternative hypothesis, showing that differences in valence had a main effect. The combined evidence produced by our Bayesian analysis, the large effect sizes of our frequentist analysis and the significant effect on two separate measurements lead us to suggest that, under the right conditions, low-cost eye trackers can successfully detect changes in saccadic duration and pupil sizes as a result of physiological responses to threat-relevant visual stimuli.

In literature, individuals, organizations, and technology can all been modelled as systems. This paper justifies the need for, and describes the development of a dual aspect model, which can be used to model and manage the interaction, alignment, and conflict between systems. Our initial dual aspect model consisted of overlapping semiotic onions [14], however model results did not match empirical data. When onion layer orders were adapted to reflect Hall's Major Triad definitions [6], system layer interaction was found to fit well with empirical data collected within modern organizations. Decomposition of the model allows academics and / or practitioners to consider systems alignment stages. Moreover, correction of layer definitions facilitates consideration of norms at the core belief / conceptual level, which supports analysis of human intention. In summary, this paper proposes a newly validated four layered onion structure and the dual alignment pathways, which can be used together to consistently represent and manage alignment between systems (i.e. individuals, technologies and/or organizational systems). The overlapping of these onions, can also be used to study the technical, formal, and informal interplay between individual, organizational and technology aspects.

No abstract available.

Mulsemedia—multiple sensorial media—captures a wide variety of research efforts and applications. This article presents a historic perspective on mulsemedia work and reviews current developments in the area. These take place across the traditional multimedia spectrum—from virtual reality applications to computer games—as well as efforts in the arts, gastronomy, and therapy, to mention a few. We also describe standardization efforts, via the MPEG-V standard, and identify future developments and exciting challenges the community needs to overcome.

A growing segment of Chinese women are willing to spend a high percentage of their income on fashion related products, however there appears to be concern over the quality of Chinese fashion magazines. Concern can be focused in two major issues: i) fashion magazine design, and ii) pictorial and textual distribution of content. This paper investigates how human factors (i.e. social norms and individual differences) influence fashion magazine design/format preferences, and investigates the difference in readership patterns between British and Chinese Women. Our study identifies significant differences between UK and Chinese readership; which has an impact on magazine viewing patterns and content preference.

Spatial memory is important for locating objects in hierarchical data structures, such as desktop folders. There are, however, some contradictions in literature concerning the effectiveness of 3D user interfaces when compared to their 2D counterparts. This paper uses a task-based approach in order to investigate the effectiveness of adding a third dimension to specific user tasks, i.e. the impact of depth on navigation in a 3D file manager. Results highlight issues and benefits of using 3D interfaces for visual and verbal tasks, and introduces the possible existence of a correlation between aptitude scores achieved on the Guilford-Zimmerman Orientation Survey and Electroencephalography-measured brainwave activity as participants search for targets of variable perceptual salience in 2D and 3D environments.

Learning the spatial layout of an environment is critical to domains including military and emergency personnel training. Training all staff within a real-world space, however, cannot practically be achieved, particularly if space is under-development or potentially unsafe. This paper contributes towards a better understanding of how individual difference factors impact upon the exposure time requirements needed to acquire spatial knowledge from a virtual environment. The impact of this research is of direct relevance to mulsemedia domain since it shows how individual differences impact information assimilation; showing that user information assimilation, and therefore feedback, must be personalised for individual needs.

A user's cognitive style impacts the way they organize and process information. This paper considers how cognitive style impacts a user's ability to acquire spatial knowledge from a range of virtual environments. Our results show that holist (field independent) users acquire spatial knowledge faster in low complex large environments, which support learning of relative visual references. Analytic (field dependent) users acquire spatial knowledge faster in complex environments, which obstruct the field of view and therefore support procedural learning. User specific limitations must be considered when defining required exposure time in virtual training environments.

When viewing multimedia presentations, a user only attends to a relatively small part of the video display at any one point in time. By shifting allocation of bandwidth from peripheral areas to those locations where a user's gaze is more likely to rest, attentive displays can be produced. Attentive displays aim to reduce resource requirements while minimizing negative user perception-understood in this paper as not only a user's ability to assimilate and understand information but also his/her subjective satisfaction with the video content. This paper introduces and discusses a perceptual comparison between two region-of-interest display (RoID) adaptation techniques. A RoID is an attentive display where bandwidth has been preallocated around measured or highly probable areas of user gaze. In this paper, video content was manipulated using two sources of data: empirical measured data (captured using eye-tracking technology) and predictive data (calculated from the physical characteristics of the video data). Results show that display adaptation causes significant variation in users' understanding of specific multimedia content. Interestingly, RoID adaptation and the type of video being presented both affect user perception of video quality. Moreover, the use of frame rates less than 15 frames per second, for any video adaptation technique, caused a significant reduction in user perceived quality, suggesting that although users are aware of video quality reduction, it does impact level of information assimilation and understanding. Results also highlight that user level of enjoyment is significantly affected by the type of video yet is not as affected by the quality or type of video adaptation-an interesting implication in the field of entertainment.

This research establishes the feasibility of using a network centric technology, Jini, to provide a grid framework on which to perform parallel video encoding. A solution was implemented using Jini and obtained real-time on demand encoding of a 480 HD video stream. Further, a projection is made concerning the encoding of 1080 HD video in real-time, as the current grid was not powerful enough to achieve this above 15 fps. The research found that Jini is able to provide a number of tools and services highly applicable in a grid environment. It is also suitable in terms of performance and responds well to a varying number of grid nodes. The main performance limiter was found to be the network bandwidth allocation, which when loaded with a large number of grid nodes was unable to handle the traffic.

In this paper we present the results of an empirical study that examines user's perception - understood as both information assimilation and subjective satisfaction - of multimedia quality, when impacted by varying network-level parameters (delay and jitter). Results showed that whilst, the type of multimedia video content impacts user information assimilation, there was no statistically significant difference in the level as a result of error inclusion. The latter result demonstrates that delay and jitter does not negatively impact information assimilation; an important result for broadcast and distributed educational applications.

International audience

This article presents the results of a study that explored the human side of the multimedia experience. We propose a model that assesses quality variation from three distinct levels: the network, the media and the contentlevels; and from two views: the technical and the user perspective. By facilitating parameter variation at each of the quality levels and from each of the perspectives, we were able to examine their impact on user quality perception. Results show that a significant reduction in frame rate does not proportionally reduce the user's understanding of the presentation independent of technical parameters, that multimedia content type significantly impacts user information assimilation, user level of enjoyment, and user perception of quality, and that the device display type impacts user information assimilation and user perception of quality. Finally, to ensure the transfer of information, low-level abstraction (network-level) parameters, such as delay and jitter, should be adapted; to maintain the user's level of enjoyment, high-level abstraction quality parameters (content-level), such as the appropriate use of display screens, should be adapted.

Monitoring eye movement offers insights into visual perception, as well as the users associated attention mechanisms and cognitive processes. The paper presents the results of an empirical study that investigated the impact of differing multimedia presentation frame rates on the user's perceptual experience, as reflected through video eye path data. Results show that varying frame rates do not affect the median coordinate value of user eye gaze and therefore highlight that selection of visual cues, which defines a user's region of interest, is not adversely affected by frame rate variation.

Perceptual multimedia quality is of paramount importance to the continued take-up and proliferation of multimedia applications; users will not use and pay for applications if they are perceived to be of low quality. While traditionally distributed multimedia quality has been characterized by quality-of-service (QoS) parameters, these neglect the user perspective of the issue of quality. In order to redress this shortcoming, we characterize the user multimedia perspective using the quality-of-perception (QoP) metric, which encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with the quality of a multimedia presentation, but also his/her ability to analyze, synthesize, and assimilate informational content of multimedia. In recognition of the fact that monitoring eye movements offers insights into visual perception, as well as the associated attention mechanisms and cognitive processes, this paper reports on the results of a study investigating the impact of differing multimedia presentation frame rates on user QoP and eye path data. Our results show that provision of higher frame rates, usually assumed to provide better multimedia presentation quality, do not significantly impact upon the median coordinate value of eye path data. Moreover, higher frame rates do not significantly increase the level of participant information assimilation, although they do significantly improve overall user enjoyment and quality perception of the multimedia content being shown.

We investigate the impact of captions on deaf and hearing perception of multimedia video clips. We measure perception using a parameter called quality of perception (QoP), which encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with multimedia clips, but also his/her ability to perceive, synthesise and analyse the informational content of such presentations. By studying perceptual diversity, it is our aim to identify trends that will help future implementation of adaptive multimedia technologies. Results show that although hearing level has a significant affect on information assimilation, the effect of captions is not significant on the objective level of information assimilated. Deaf participants predict that captions significantly improve their level of information assimilation, although no significant objective improvement was measured. The level of enjoyment is unaffected by a participant's level of hearing or use of captions.