Studying the effect of symmetry in team structures on collaborative tasks in virtual reality

Abstract

Studies involving collaboration in groups are frequently carried out under symmetrical conditions, meaning that all team members have the same role at the same time. In Virtual Reality, symmetrical collaboration often seems attractive as it allows all participants to be included in the VR environment, but it is not clear whether this provides any benefits over asymmetric forms of collaboration, such as when some team members are in VR while others are working on laptops. We conducted a study to compare the conditions of symmetric configurations (both team members use VR) and asymmetric configurations (one member in VR, and the other uses a laptop) when two participants performed a creativity task together. We found that there were differences in participant behavior and the ideas generated. We conclude by proposing guidelines for future work in the area, particularly related to the use of Virtual Reality for creativity workshops.

Creating an Immersive Virtual Reality Game Space for Multiuser, Synchronous Co-Located Collaboration: Design Considerations and Influencing Factors

“…Several studies have explored collaboration effectiveness in an IVR environment; the results indicate that IVR can support communication, understanding, and teamwork for medical training and education [46] and that it can be used to effectively assess social communication skills [47]. Other benefits include enhanced creativity compared with conventional tools and systems [48], empowered empathetic behavior [49], and improved knowledge acquisition [50].…”

Boosting Creativity through Users’ Avatars and Contexts in Virtual Environments—A Systematic Review of Recent Research

“…First, this review focused on analyzing the boosting effect of virtual avatars and contextual cues on creative performance. However, creativity in the VE is also influenced by communication modalities (Forens et al 2015), the combination of different platforms in creative activities (Agnès et al 2022), and user experience (Hong et al 2016;Fröhlich et al 2018). These factors are also worth discussing, as they influence creative performance in a positive or negative way.…”