Masters Theses

Abstract

"The main purpose of this research was to examine the impact of the degree of affective intensity of a virtual reality training environment on learning, as demonstrated by performance within a "real life", affectively intense environment. The research was based on a model that took into consideration learner variables such as immersive tendency and affect intensity, coupled with virtual reality induced conditions of autonomic arousal and presence, and their cumulative effect on task performance in the corresponding affectively intense "real" world. Twenty-two individuals recruited from the university completed a "training" scenario in which they were required to locate victims of a terrorist attack either in an "affectively intense" or "affectively neutral" version a the virtual environment. This virtual environment was a model of the University's Computer Science building, created to support this scenario. Following the training, participants were required to locate the rooms that contained the victims within the actual computer science building as they listened to an affectively intense audio track. The major findings were: 1) Those in the affectively intense environment performed substantially better at identifying the location of injured victims; 2) The two environments did not differ with respect to the autonomic arousal of the participants or with respect to their perception of presence, nor did autonomic arousal or presence predict performance in the "real" environment; 3) Those more experienced with computer games reported a higher degree of presence in the virtual environment and performed better in the "real" environment (and males tended to have more experience with computer games).; 4) Those who scored high on individual difference measures representing an immersive focus tendency and a tendency to respond intensely to affective events performed worse in the "real" environment"--Abstract, p. iii

Advisor(s)

Hall, Richard H.

Committee Member(s)

Reddy, Madhu
Hilgers, Michael Gene

Department(s)

Business and Information Technology

Degree Name

M.S. in Information Science and Technology

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

Spring 2004

Pagination

xi, 58 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-57)

Rights

© 2004 Lawrence M. Wilfred, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Virtual reality in education
Computer-assisted instruction -- Design -- Research

Thesis Number

T 8479

Print OCLC #

56463615

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