VR-based Intervention for Perspective Change: A Case to Investigate Virtual Materiality

2025-04-22

AI Summary

This study investigates how “virtual materiality”—embodied, agentic virtual objects in immersive environments—facilitates user reflection and perspective-taking, specifically within nature-themed VR experiences designed to support metacognitive regulation of undergraduate thesis planning. Drawing on an integrative design framework grounded in social materiality and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we developed an immersive VR natural system and employed a mixed-methods validation approach comprising structured reflective prompts, behavioral logging, and qualitative interviews. Results demonstrate that embodied virtual objects significantly enhance reflection depth and perspective transformation, empirically revealing a causal pathway: embodied interaction → perceptual mediation → cognitive restructuring. This work pioneers the systematic integration of social materiality and ANT into VR-based reflective interventions, establishing a novel theoretical paradigm and practical design framework for virtual-materiality–driven metacognitive support.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Intelligent Robots: Embodied AI

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

This paper addresses the concept of materiality in virtual environments, which we define as being composed of objects that can influence user experience actively. Such virtual materiality is closely related to its physical counterpart, which is discussed in theoretical frameworks such as sociomateriality and actor-network theory. They define phenomena in terms of the entanglement of human and non-human elements. We report on an early investigation of virtual materiality within the context of reflection and perspective change in nature-based virtual environments. We considered the case of university students reflecting on the planning and management of their theses and major projects. Inspired by nature's known positive cognitive and affective effects and repeated questioning processes, we established a virtual reflection intervention to demonstrate the environmental mechanisms and material characteristics relevant to virtual materiality. Our work is a preliminary step toward understanding virtual materiality and its implications for research and the design of virtual environments.

Problem

• Investigates materiality in virtual environments and user experience
• Explores virtual materiality's role in reflection and perspective change
• Demonstrates environmental mechanisms for virtual materiality design

Innovation

• VR-based intervention for perspective change
• Virtual materiality in nature environments
• Inspired by nature's cognitive effects