Effects of Avatar Hand-size Modifications on Size Judgments of Familiar and Abstract Objects in Virtual Reality

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis.June 2019. Major: Computer Science. Advisor: Peter Willemsen. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 56 pages.Many research studies have investigated spatial understanding within virtual envi- ronments, ranging from distance estimation, size judgments, and perception of scale. Eventually, this knowledge will help us to create virtual environments that better match our spatial abilities within natural environments. To further understand how people interpret the size of virtual objects, we present an experiment that utilizes a proprioceptive-based size estimation measure designed to elicit a three-dimensional judgment of an object’s size using a box-sizing task. Participants viewed both ab- stract and familiar objects presented within action-space in a virtual environment and were asked to make an axis-aligned box the same size as the object they previously observed. A between-subjects manipulation modified a participant’s avatar hand size to be either 80%, 100% or 120% of their measured hand size. Results indicate that the avatar hand size manipulation scales various factors of these size judgments in the three dimensions. Additionally, whether an object was abstract or a familiar size object produced distinctly different size judgments