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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

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


Authors

Samantha Keenaghan

Marie Polaskova



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 Mar 29, 2024
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

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