Embodied Motivation: Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Approach and Avoidance in Virtual Reality

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how object affordances modulate approach and avoidance behaviors in virtual reality (VR). The primary hypotheses are that 1) motivational relevance shapes facilitation or inhibition of behaviors while interacting with virtual objects, and that 2) approach-avoidance can be quantified using spatial and temporal aspects of behavior in VR. An experiment was conducted to track and examine user behaviors during a virtual photo-sorting task that used images with varying valence and arousal levels. Spatial indicators of approach and avoidance were operationalized as the distance between the individual and the photo during the task. Temporal indicators were operationalized as the speed and latency of gazing at the objects, selection order, and sorting behavior. Results show that stimulus valence and arousal significantly affect speed and latency during object selection, demonstrating motivational reactions to virtual objects. Exploratory analyses also revealed varying patterns of object selection across individuals. Overall, this study has implications for the design of virtual environments and supports the use of VR technology in studying motivational processes and behaviors relevant for media psychologists.

Acknowledgments

We thank Sage Miller for developing the VR stimuli and Sanguk Lee for his help on data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at HTTPS://OSF.IO/DRQ82.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Data. The data are openly accessible at HTTPS://OSF.IO/DRQ82.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Participants were asked to come to the lab with contact lenses if they had corrected-to-normal vision. When some participants had eyeglasses on, one of the three pairs of myopic lenses were provided to correct their eyesight.

2. The initial 14 images were used to determine selection preference because after the first 14 selections, the role of motivational relevance in preferences is constrained by the number of remaining choices due to diminishing degrees of freedom in available options.