What is perception in VR
Perception has been described as a conscious awareness of something and this awareness is derived from sensory stimuli (Geoffrey-Wright, 2014). Geoffrey-Wright (2014) discusses the ability of VR to enhance perception, a form of mind augmentation. This may suggest that where VR can generate the appropriate sensory stimuli, it can be used as a tool to augment people's minds. Given the multi-dimensional nature of perception and that researchers have shown people's perceptions can be impacted by age (Pradhan, 2005), emotions (Lu et al., 2013) and the media (Coleman, 2016), to name but a few factors, investigating VR's ability to augment the mind, may prove challenging because people are innately different.
The virtual fire experience
Interestingly, research (Spanlang et al., 2007) found that people reacted to a virtual fire as though it were real, running out of the venue even though the virtual fire was reported to be unrealistic in appearance. This may show two things. Firstly, this seems contrary to research (Slater, 2009) around presence positing that virtual environments needing to be plausible to create the illusion of realness. Secondly, it may show that people can react to virtual environments as they would a real-life situation and in doing so, they are afforded the opportunity to develop the required experience to learn from it. These learning experiences may be facilitators of cognitive enhancements, particularly given that VR experiences can positively change perceptions (Ojados Gonzalez et al., 2017).
How VR can change behaviour
Elsewhere, VR behaviour has been found to be comparable to behaviour in reality (Pizzi et al., 2019), meaning if VR has utility in positively augmenting people's minds, people's future behaviours may be somewhat predictable. This may also mean that behaviours observed in VR can be analysed in a context of theoretical reality allowing more targeted interventions to adjust behaviours to that which is required. Other research (Passig et al., 2008) has found that people's perceptions towards others can also be positively changed. Passig et al. (2009) found that where parents of dyslexic children experienced a VR simulation demonstrating dyslexia in action, parents' perceptions of dyslexia became more positive as their awareness of the condition was increased. This in itself is exciting as it may indicate the power of VR to change perceptions from a third-person perspective. Furthermore, from the third-person perspective, people can see the interaction in its totality. That is, people can be the fly on the wall.
Conclusion
Perception is an important aspect of everything we do because it gives meaning to things, people and places. We see meaning before we see anything else. Is critically important that virtual environments reflect true meaning. What is encouraging is that perception can positively shape behaviours and so there is a significant opportunity to make a positive impact through careful design and thought of virtual experiences.