Our Perception of (Virtual) Reality
By Elvina, Edited by Angus
Virtual reality (VR) isn’t new, and there are plenty of experiments, games, and related articles—whatever you want to call it, already out there. Regardless of whether it isn’t, is, or will be successful and popular, how real it seems to us is fascinating.
We know it isn’t real when we put on the headset. The technology still isn’t fully developed. Not all of the graphics appear the same as in the world. Yet how does the user believe and feel the experience is happening? How or what exactly affects our perception? If VR becomes more refined in the future, and some people speculate it will be in 5 to 10 years, what would it mean for us and the world? Would it still exist? What about life as we know it?
Before delving further into all these philosophical matters, first, understand perception.
Perception is how we recognise and interpret stimuli or sensations. Because no one can pay attention to everything around them all at once, or at least, our brains certainly can’t process it all together, there is a selection process. Once you focus on a particular stimulus, your sensory receptors activate, transduce and transmit the information to your brain. According to Course Hero (n.d.), there forms a ‘mental representation’—an image, a feeling, a thought, which may vary depending on an individual’s experiences, values, and expectations.
An individual’s perspective or position may also affect perception. For example, apropos our sense of sight, you have two eyes, one on the left and the other on the right. The view differs slightly from either eye; thus, the projected image too (Vox, 2020). The parts that don’t match up are a new dimension but allow for stereopsis; your mind then comes up with a 3D image. It is why VR headsets have two screens. What you see imitates reality.
Naturally, aside from sight, we also hear, smell and feel. Some VR games or experiments utilise audio of what we hear if we were there in person. A few implement items such as actuators to resemble sensations (Price et al., 2021). For instance, when the user comes across a glass vase, there is some resistance, stiffness and perhaps a slight temperature drop. These feelings, together with what the user sees or has experienced, amplify this (virtual) reality.
With the same glass vase example, yes, you do see it in the VR environment. However, your body is still where it was when you first wore the headset, which may be in an entirely different scene. You believe the vase to be there, though, because you saw it and felt something change. Despite knowing you or it isn’t truly there, the underlying issue is how we are too dependent on our sight. According to Dr Frank Steinicke, ‘research shows that 80% of the information we perceive from our environment is based on vision only’ (Vox, 2020).
On that note, this is one reason people get injured when experimenting with VR. Usually, the scenery on the screen and where the user’s body is are different, and as a result, people often bump into furniture in the room which aren’t visible. What’s known as ‘virtual reality sickness’ may occur when the view varies from what you feel (hearing, movement and balance), causing dizziness (ANSES, 2021; What Is Virtual Reality?, 2017).
Nevertheless, if people use VR in a safe environment, it can be very beneficial. Since VR involves the computer recreating a place to appear as realistic as possible, it can help people face their fears, overcome trauma, or even practice certain situations (Banino, 2019). VR may become a simulation for trainee surgeons, such as practising dissections (Virtual Reality: Another World within Sight, n.d.). Especially since there aren’t severe consequences if anything goes wrong, and if it becomes too much to handle, all one has to do is take off the headset.
Furthermore, some studies have shown that VR can affect brain rhythms, one being an investigation on rodents at UCLA (Ling, 2021). VR has the potential to treat memory-related disorders. That said, for it to have the capability to alter our minds comes with several ethical issues—depending on the environment made by the computer, there is no telling whether one would become scarred, mentally or physically.
References
ANSES. (2021, June 24). What are the risks of virtual reality and augmented reality, and what good practices does ANSES recommend? https://www.anses.fr/en/content/what-are-risks-virtual-reality-and-augmented-reality-and-what-good-practices-does-anses
Banino, R. (2019, June 1). Confronting trauma with virtual reality therapy. BBC Science Focus Magazine. https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/confronting-trauma-with-virtual-reality-therapy/
Cherry, K. (2020, July 9). How does perception work? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/perception-and-the-perceptual-process-2795839
Course Hero. (n.d.). Introduction to perception. Retrieved June 11, 2022, from https://www.coursehero.com/study-guides/boundless-psychology/introduction-to-perception/
Ling, T. (2021, June 30). VR may strengthen your brain waves – and be an effective alzheimer’s treatment. Science Focus. https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/vr-brainwaves-discovery/
Price, S., Jewitt, C., & Yiannoutsou, N. (2021). Conceptualising touch in VR. Virtual Reality, 25(3), 863–877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00494-y
Virtual reality: Another world within sight. (n.d.). Iberdrola. https://www.iberdrola.com/innovation/virtual-reality
Vox. (2020, December 22). How virtual reality tricks your brain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybyib5pAq7Y&feature=youtu.be
What is virtual reality? (2017, June 30). Virtual Reality Society. https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/what-is-virtual-reality.html
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