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

Abstract

In adults, illusory embodiment of a virtual avatar can be induced using synchronous visuomotor cues. Further, 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-olds viewed a first-person perspective of different-sized avatars, moving either synchronously or asynchronously with themselves. Participants rated their feelings of embodiment over the avatar, as well as estimating the sizes of their environment and body. Unlike adults, children embodied the avatar regardless of visuomotor synchrony. Both adults and children embodied different-sized avatars, affecting their perception of the size of their environment. These findings have important implications for our understanding of children’s bodily awareness and size perception.

Development of the Bodily Self: Effects of Visuomotor Synchrony and Visual Appearance on Virtual Embodiment in Children and Adults

“…The difference in the experience of agency that we observed between children and adults might reflect that that the ongoing matching between the motor intention and predicted and actual sensory outcomes might still be under development in children. This is in line with the limited evidence in children which demonstrates that visuomotor synchrony is not a prerequisite for the experience of agency in five-year-old children (Keenaghan, Polaskova, et al, 2020). Taken together, these findings might reflect a developmental trajectory in the experience of agency for virtual avatars, which is different for the experience of ownership.…”

“…It is likely that such maturation translates to a body that is observed from a first-person perspective, as similar results were found for the rubber hand illusion. Taking together the results from the current study and those from a recent preprint (Keenaghan, Polaskova, et al, 2020), a similar maturation might occur for the integration of visuomotor as compared to visuotactile signals. The preprint described that in a similar first-person perspective full body illusion as we used here, 5-year-old children reported a strong feeling of ownership both after synchronous and asynchronous visuomotor stimulation (Keenaghan, Polaskova, et al, 2020).…”

“…Taking together the results from the current study and those from a recent preprint (Keenaghan, Polaskova, et al, 2020), a similar maturation might occur for the integration of visuomotor as compared to visuotactile signals. The preprint described that in a similar first-person perspective full body illusion as we used here, 5-year-old children reported a strong feeling of ownership both after synchronous and asynchronous visuomotor stimulation (Keenaghan, Polaskova, et al, 2020). In contrast to the findings by Keenaghan and colleagues (2020), the children in our sample showed an adult-like modulation of synchrony on ownership, confirming the idea that other sensory signals, in addition to the visual first-person perspective become increasingly important at that age.…”

My Virtual Self: The Role of Movement in Children's Sense of Embodiment

“…in children [59] and certain adult populations [41], [75]. However, given the low R 2 value, we note age is unlikely to explain a large portion of variability in agency scores.…”

“…Infants have shown sensitivities to the configuration of their own legs [30], while 6-year-olds do not have a sense of ownership for a rubber hand with a different posture to their own [58]. However, in full body VR experiments, five-year-olds embodied a virtual body moving asynchronously to their own [59]. These discrepancies raise important questions for the plasticity of form and body representation in children.…”