Impact of Appearance and Control of Emotions in Virtual Reality on Behaviour in Children and Young Adults: Link With Feeling of Presence

Recently, researchers in the field of cognitive psychology have shown a great interest in Virtual Reality (VR). Indeed, this technology is the most advanced to create immersion and sense of presence in a virtual environment (VE) and gives the opportunity to study cognitive mechanisms in more ecological way. However, little is known about the impact of VR on the cognition and emotional states of the VR users. According to the scientific literature, the sense of presence (the fact that the user experiences the sense of being in the VE) is strongly related to the emotional experience, but it is not clear what mechanisms underline this relation. Thus, more research is necessary to its better understanding. Moreover, a few studies have shown age related differences in sense of presence, with children having greater inclination for sense of presence than adults. This might be explained by the fact that frontal cortex (which is responsible for a control of the sense of presence) is still developing in childhood (the maturation last for the beginning of adulthood).

The goal of the present study is to examine which factors might be responsible of the interaction between the sense of presence, the immersion and the emotional experience in Virtual Reality, and the age-related difference. Thus, the investigator study 2 types of healthy participants (volunteers) in order to examine the age-related difference in this interaction: young adults between 18 and 25 years old and children between 8 to 14 years old. To study different factors potentially involved in the interaction four experiments will be conducted. In each experiment the investigator manipulate one type of factor to study its impact on emotions and the sense of presence in a VE: (1) the image quality, (2) the fact that participant had an avatar (body) in the VE, (3) the possibility to interact or not in VE and (4) the nature of elements with which it is possible to interact (objects or living being). In the end of this study the investigator hope to contribute to the knowledge of adapted use of VR for different type of users, such as children and young adults.