Alice in Wonderland: The effects of body size and movement on children’s size perception and body representation in virtual reality

Keenaghan, Samantha; Polaskova, Marie; Thurlbeck, Simon; Kentridge, Robert W.; Cowie, Dorothy

Abstract

Previous work shows that in adults, illusory embodiment of a virtual avatar can be induced using congruent visuomotor cues. Furthermore, embodying different-sized avatars influences adults’ perception of their environment’s size. This study (N = 92) investigated whether children are also susceptible to such embodiment and size illusions. Adults and 5-year-old children viewed a first-person perspective of different-sized avatars moving either congruently or incongruently with their own body. Participants rated their feelings of embodiment over the avatar and also estimated the sizes of their body and objects in the environment. Unlike adults, children embodied the avatar regardless of visuomotor congruency. Both adults and children freely embodied different-sized avatars, and this affected their size perception in the surrounding virtual environment; they felt that objects were larger in a small body and vice versa in a large body. In addition, children felt that their body had grown in the large body condition. These findings have important implications for both our theoretical understanding of own-body representation, and our knowledge of perception in virtual environments.

Citation

Keenaghan, S., Polaskova, M., Thurlbeck, S., Kentridge, R. W., & Cowie, D. (2022). Alice in Wonderland: The effects of body size and movement on children’s size perception and body representation in virtual reality. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 224, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105518

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 7, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Aug 11, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 5, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
• Print ISSN: 0022-0965
• Electronic ISSN: 1096-0457
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 224
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105518
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1193105