Nina Döllinger M.Sc.

Nina Döllinger M. Sc.

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin/PhD Studentin

e-Mail: nina.doellinger(at)uni-wuerzburg.de

Psychologie Intelligenter Interaktiver Systeme
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Institut für Mensch-Computer-Medien
Universität Würzburg
Emil-Fischer-Straße 50
97074 Würzburg
Deutschland

Mini-CV

Studied Psychology (B. Sc.) at the LMU München and Human Factors (M. Sc.) at the TU Berlin
Worked as student assistant at the German Aerospace Center (DLR Oberpfaffenhofen, 2013 & 2014), the TU Munich (Lehrstuhl für Ergonomie; 2013-2014) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK; 2015-2018)

Research interests

body awareness
mindfulness
embodied cognition
virtual reality
user experience
human centered design

Publications

2023[ to top ]

Mal, David, Erik Wolf, Nina Döllinger, Carolin Wienrich, and Marc Erich Latoschik. The Impact of Avatar and Environment Congruence on Plausibility, Embodiment, Presence, and the Proteus Effect in Virtual Reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), 2023, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2023.3247089.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
Many studies show the significance of the Proteus effect for serious virtual reality applications. The present study extends the existing knowledge by considering the relationship (congruence) between the self-embodiment (avatar) and the virtual environment. We investigated the impact of avatar and environment types and their congruence on avatar plausibility, sense of embodiment, spatial presence, and the Proteus effect. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, participants embodied either an avatar in sports- or business wear in a semantic congruent or incongruent environment while performing lightweight exercises in virtual reality. The avatar-environment congruence significantly affected the avatar’s plausibility but not the sense of embodiment or spatial presence. However, a significant Proteus effect emerged only for participants who reported a high feeling of (virtual) body ownership, indicating that a strong sense of having and owning a virtual body is key to facilitating the Proteus effect. We discuss the results assuming current theories of bottom-up and top-down determinants of the Proteus effect and thus contribute to understanding its underlying mechanisms and determinants.

@article{noauthororeditor2023impact, abstract = {Many studies show the significance of the Proteus effect for serious virtual reality applications. The present study extends the existing knowledge by considering the relationship (congruence) between the self-embodiment (avatar) and the virtual environment. We investigated the impact of avatar and environment types and their congruence on avatar plausibility, sense of embodiment, spatial presence, and the Proteus effect. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, participants embodied either an avatar in sports- or business wear in a semantic congruent or incongruent environment while performing lightweight exercises in virtual reality. The avatar-environment congruence significantly affected the avatar’s plausibility but not the sense of embodiment or spatial presence. However, a significant Proteus effect emerged only for participants who reported a high feeling of (virtual) body ownership, indicating that a strong sense of having and owning a virtual body is key to facilitating the Proteus effect. We discuss the results assuming current theories of bottom-up and top-down determinants of the Proteus effect and thus contribute to understanding its underlying mechanisms and determinants.}, author = {Mal, David and Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG)}, keywords = {dmal}, pages = {1-11}, title = {The Impact of Avatar and Environment Congruence on Plausibility, Embodiment, Presence, and the Proteus Effect in Virtual Reality}, year = 2023 }
Fiedler, Marie Luisa, Erik Wolf, Nina Döllinger, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Embodiment and Personalization for Self-Identification with Virtual Humans. In 2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 1-2. https://downloads.hci.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/2023-ieeevr-self-identification-preprint.pdf.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
Our work investigates the impact of virtual human embodiment and personalization on the sense of embodiment (SoE) and self-identification (SI). We introduce preliminary items to query self-similarity (SS) and self-attribution (SA) with virtual humans as dimensions of SI. In our study, 64 participants successively observed personalized and generic-looking virtual humans, either as embodied avatars in a virtual mirror or as agents while performing tasks. They reported significantly higher SoE and SI when facing personalized virtual humans and significantly higher SoE and SA when facing embodied avatars, indicating that both factors have strong separate and complimentary influence on SoE and SI.

@inproceedings{fiedler2023selfidentification, abstract = {Our work investigates the impact of virtual human embodiment and personalization on the sense of embodiment (SoE) and self-identification (SI). We introduce preliminary items to query self-similarity (SS) and self-attribution (SA) with virtual humans as dimensions of SI. In our study, 64 participants successively observed personalized and generic-looking virtual humans, either as embodied avatars in a virtual mirror or as agents while performing tasks. They reported significantly higher SoE and SI when facing personalized virtual humans and significantly higher SoE and SA when facing embodied avatars, indicating that both factors have strong separate and complimentary influence on SoE and SI.}, author = {Fiedler, Marie Luisa and Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, booktitle = {2023 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)}, keywords = {mfiedler}, pages = {1-2}, title = {Embodiment and Personalization for Self-Identification with Virtual Humans}, year = 2023 }
Döllinger, Nina, Erik Wolf, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Are Embodied Avatars Harmful to our Self-Experience? The Impact of Virtual Embodiment on Body Awareness. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, 2023.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to replace our visible body with a virtual self-representation (avatar) and to explore its effects on our body perception. While the feeling of owning and controlling a virtual body is widely researched, how VR affects the awareness of internal body signals (body awareness) remains open. Forty participants performed moving meditation tasks in reality and VR, either facing their mirror image or not. Both the virtual environment and avatars photorealistically matched their real counterparts. We found a negative effect of VR on body awareness, mediated by feeling embodied in and changed by the avatar. Further, we revealed a negative effect of a mirror on body awareness. Our results indicate that assessing body awareness should be essential in evaluating VR designs and avatar embodiment aiming at mental health, as even a scenario as close to reality as possible can distract users from their internal body signals.

@inproceedings{dollinger2023embodied, abstract = {Virtual Reality (VR) allows us to replace our visible body with a virtual self-representation (avatar) and to explore its effects on our body perception. While the feeling of owning and controlling a virtual body is widely researched, how VR affects the awareness of internal body signals (body awareness) remains open. Forty participants performed moving meditation tasks in reality and VR, either facing their mirror image or not. Both the virtual environment and avatars photorealistically matched their real counterparts. We found a negative effect of VR on body awareness, mediated by feeling embodied in and changed by the avatar. Further, we revealed a negative effect of a mirror on body awareness. Our results indicate that assessing body awareness should be essential in evaluating VR designs and avatar embodiment aiming at mental health, as even a scenario as close to reality as possible can distract users from their internal body signals.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, booktitle = {CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems}, keywords = {change_experience}, note = {To be published}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, title = {Are Embodied Avatars Harmful to our Self-Experience? The Impact of Virtual Embodiment on Body Awareness}, year = 2023 }

2022[ to top ]

Mal, David, Erik Wolf, Nina Döllinger, Mario Botsch, Carolin Wienrich, and Marc Erich Latoschik. Virtual Human Coherence and Plausibility – Towards a Validated Scale. In Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VR ’22). https://downloads.hci.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/2022_ieeevr_virtual_human_plausibility_preprint.pdf.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
Virtual humans contribute to users’ state of plausibility in various XR applications. We present the development and preliminary evaluation of a self-assessment questionnaire to quantify virtual human’s plausibility in virtual environments based on eleven concise items. A principal component analysis of 650 appraisals collected in an online survey revealed two highly reliable components within the items. We interpret the components as possible factors, i.e., appearance and behavior plausibility and match to the virtual environment, and propose future work aiming towards a standardized virtual human plausibility scale by validating the structure and sensitivity of both sub-components in XR environments.

@inproceedings{mal2022virtual, abstract = {Virtual humans contribute to users’ state of plausibility in various XR applications. We present the development and preliminary evaluation of a self-assessment questionnaire to quantify virtual human’s plausibility in virtual environments based on eleven concise items. A principal component analysis of 650 appraisals collected in an online survey revealed two highly reliable components within the items. We interpret the components as possible factors, i.e., appearance and behavior plausibility and match to the virtual environment, and propose future work aiming towards a standardized virtual human plausibility scale by validating the structure and sensitivity of both sub-components in XR environments.}, author = {Mal, David and Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Botsch, Mario and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 29th IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VR '22)}, keywords = {dmal}, title = {Virtual Human Coherence and Plausibility – Towards a Validated Scale}, year = 2022 }
Keppler, Sebastian, Nina Döllinger, Carolin Wienrich, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Johann Habakuk Israel. Self-Touch: An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness. I-com 21, no. 3 (2022): 329-37. https://doi.org/doi:10.1515/icom-2022-0028.
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
@article{KepplerDöllingerWienrichLatoschikIsrael+2022+329+337, author = {Keppler, Sebastian and Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Israel, Johann Habakuk}, journal = {i-com}, keywords = {change_experience}, number = 3, pages = {329–337}, title = {Self-Touch: An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness}, volume = 21, year = 2022 }
Döllinger, Nina, Christopher Göttfert, Erik Wolf, David Mal, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Analyzing Eye Tracking Data in Mirror Exposure. In Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch Und Computer. https://downloads.hci.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/2022-muc-eyetracking_in_mirror_exposition-preprint.pdf.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
Mirror exposure is an important method in the treatment of body image disturbances. Eye tracking can support the unaffected assessment of attention biases during mirror exposure. However, the analysis of eye tracking data in mirror exposure comes with various difficulties and is associated with a high manual workload during data processing. We present an automated data processing framework that enables us to determine any body part as an area of interest without placing markers on the bodies of participants. A short, formative user study proved the quality compared to the gold standard. The automatic processing and openness for different systems allow a broad range of applications.

@inproceedings{dollinger2022eyetracking, abstract = {Mirror exposure is an important method in the treatment of body image disturbances. Eye tracking can support the unaffected assessment of attention biases during mirror exposure. However, the analysis of eye tracking data in mirror exposure comes with various difficulties and is associated with a high manual workload during data processing. We present an automated data processing framework that enables us to determine any body part as an area of interest without placing markers on the bodies of participants. A short, formative user study proved the quality compared to the gold standard. The automatic processing and openness for different systems allow a broad range of applications.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Göttfert, Christopher and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Conference on Mensch und Computer}, keywords = {change_experience}, title = {Analyzing Eye Tracking Data in Mirror Exposure}, year = 2022 }
Döllinger, Nina, Erik Wolf, David Mal, Stephan Wenninger, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality. Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.935449.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.

@article{dollinger2022resizeme, abstract = {Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. Using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Wenninger, Stephan and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, keywords = {change_experience}, title = {Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality}, year = 2022 }
Döllinger, Nina, Erik Wolf, David Mal, Stephan Wenninger, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality. ArXiv, 2022. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2203.05060.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. By using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.

@article{dollinger2022resize, abstract = {Obesity is a serious disease that can affect both physical and psychological well-being. Due to weight stigmatization, many affected individuals suffer from body image disturbances whereby they perceive their body in a distorted way, evaluate it negatively, or neglect it. Beyond established interventions such as mirror exposure, recent advancements aim to complement body image treatments by the embodiment of visually altered virtual bodies in virtual reality (VR). We present a high-fidelity prototype of an advanced VR system that allows users to embody a rapidly generated personalized, photorealistic avatar and to realistically modulate its body weight in real-time within a carefully designed virtual environment. In a formative multi-method approach, a total of 12 participants rated the general user experience (UX) of our system during body scan and VR experience using semi-structured qualitative interviews and multiple quantitative UX measures. By using body weight modification tasks, we further compared three different interaction methods for real-time body weight modification and measured our system's impact on the body image relevant measures body awareness and body weight perception. From the feedback received, demonstrating an already solid UX of our overall system and providing constructive input for further improvement, we derived a set of design guidelines to guide future development and evaluation processes of systems supporting body image interventions.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Wenninger, Stephan and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, journal = {arXiv}, keywords = {dmal}, title = {Resize Me! Exploring the User Experience of Embodied Realistic Modulatable Avatars for Body Image Intervention in Virtual Reality}, year = 2022 }
Döllinger, Nina, Erik Wolf, David Mal, Nico Erdmannsdörfer, Mario Botsch, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Carolin Wienrich. Virtual Reality for Mind and Body: Does the Sense of Embodiment Towards a Virtual Body Affect Physical Body Awareness?. In CHI 22 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, 7. https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519613.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ DOI ]
Mind-body therapies aim to improve health by combining physical and mental exercises. Recent developments tend to incorporate virtual reality (VR) into their design and execution, but there is a lack of research concerning the inclusion of virtual bodies and their effect on body awareness in these designs. In this study, 24 participants performed in-VR body awareness movement tasks in front of a virtual mirror while embodying a photorealistic, personalized avatar. Subsequently, they performed a heartbeat counting task and rated their perceived body awareness and sense of embodiment towards the avatar. We found a significant relationship between sense of embodiment and self-reported body awareness but not between sense of embodiment and heartbeat counting. Future work can build on these findings and further explore the relationship between avatar embodiment and body awareness.

@inproceedings{dollinger2022virtual, abstract = {Mind-body therapies aim to improve health by combining physical and mental exercises. Recent developments tend to incorporate virtual reality (VR) into their design and execution, but there is a lack of research concerning the inclusion of virtual bodies and their effect on body awareness in these designs. In this study, 24 participants performed in-VR body awareness movement tasks in front of a virtual mirror while embodying a photorealistic, personalized avatar. Subsequently, they performed a heartbeat counting task and rated their perceived body awareness and sense of embodiment towards the avatar. We found a significant relationship between sense of embodiment and self-reported body awareness but not between sense of embodiment and heartbeat counting. Future work can build on these findings and further explore the relationship between avatar embodiment and body awareness.}, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wolf, Erik and Mal, David and Erdmannsdörfer, Nico and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Wienrich, Carolin}, journal = {CHI 22 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts}, keywords = {m.botsch}, month = {April}, pages = 7, title = {Virtual Reality for Mind and Body: Does the Sense of Embodiment Towards a Virtual Body Affect Physical Body Awareness?}, year = 2022 }

2021[ to top ]

Döllinger, Nina, Carolin Wienrich, and Marc Erich Latoschik. Challenges and Opportunities of Immersive Technologies for Mindfulness Meditation: A Systematic Review. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 2 (2021): 644-83. https://doi.org/doi: 10.3389/frvir.2021.644683.
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ DOI ]
@article{-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:1.5), author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, keywords = {change_experience}, pages = {644-683}, title = {Challenges and Opportunities of Immersive Technologies for Mindfulness Meditation: A Systematic Review}, volume = 2, year = 2021 }
Keppler, Sebastian, Nina Döllinger, Carolin Wienrich, Marc Erich Latoschik, and Johann Habakuk Israel. Self-Touch:An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness. In Proceedingsof the 19th ACM Conference on Culture and Computer Science.
- [ BibTeX ]
@inproceedings{keppler2021selftouchan, author = {Keppler, Sebastian and Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Latoschik, Marc Erich and Israel, Johann Habakuk}, booktitle = {Proceedingsof the 19th ACM Conference on Culture and Computer Science}, keywords = {change_experience}, title = {Self-Touch:An Immersive Interaction-Technique to Enhance Body Awareness}, year = 2021 }
Wienrich, Carolin, Nina Döllinger, and Rebecca Hein. Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies ({BehaveFIT}): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes. Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Technology for VR. Special Issue: User Experience in Virtual Reality Application Design 2 (June 2021). https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.627194.
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
@article{Wienrich_2021, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Döllinger, Nina and Hein, Rebecca}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality. Technology for VR. Special Issue: User Experience in Virtual Reality Application design}, keywords = {change_experience}, month = {jun}, publisher = {Frontiers Media {SA}}, title = {Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies ({BehaveFIT}): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes}, volume = 2, year = 2021 }
Wienrich, Carolin, Nina Ines Döllinger, and Rebecca Hein. Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes. Frontiers in Virtual Reality 2 (2021): 84. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2021.627194.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
The design and evaluation of assisting technologies to support behavior change processes have become an essential topic within the field of human-computer interaction research in general and the field of immersive intervention technologies in particular. The mechanisms and success of behavior change techniques and interventions are broadly investigated in the field of psychology. However, it is not always easy to adapt these psychological findings to the context of immersive technologies. The lack of theoretical foundation also leads to a lack of explanation as to why and how immersive interventions support behavior change processes. The Behavioral Framework for immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT) addresses this lack by 1) presenting an intelligible categorization and condensation of psychological barriers and immersive features, by 2) suggesting a mapping that shows why and how immersive technologies can help to overcome barriers and finally by 3) proposing a generic prediction path that enables a structured, theory-based approach to the development and evaluation of immersive interventions. These three steps explain how BehaveFIT can be used, and include guiding questions for each step. Further, two use cases illustrate the usage of BehaveFIT. Thus, the present paper contributes to guidance for immersive intervention design and evaluation, showing that immersive interventions support behavior change processes and explain and predict 'why' and 'how' immersive interventions can bridge the intention-behavior-gap.

@article{wienrich2020mind, abstract = {The design and evaluation of assisting technologies to support behavior change processes have become an essential topic within the field of human-computer interaction research in general and the field of immersive intervention technologies in particular. The mechanisms and success of behavior change techniques and interventions are broadly investigated in the field of psychology. However, it is not always easy to adapt these psychological findings to the context of immersive technologies. The lack of theoretical foundation also leads to a lack of explanation as to why and how immersive interventions support behavior change processes. The Behavioral Framework for immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT) addresses this lack by 1) presenting an intelligible categorization and condensation of psychological barriers and immersive features, by 2) suggesting a mapping that shows why and how immersive technologies can help to overcome barriers and finally by 3) proposing a generic prediction path that enables a structured, theory-based approach to the development and evaluation of immersive interventions. These three steps explain how BehaveFIT can be used, and include guiding questions for each step. Further, two use cases illustrate the usage of BehaveFIT. Thus, the present paper contributes to guidance for immersive intervention design and evaluation, showing that immersive interventions support behavior change processes and explain and predict 'why' and 'how' immersive interventions can bridge the intention-behavior-gap.}, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Döllinger, Nina Ines and Hein, Rebecca}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, keywords = {rebecca.hein}, pages = 84, title = {Behavioral Framework of Immersive Technologies (BehaveFIT): How and Why Virtual Reality can Support Behavioral Change Processes}, volume = 2, year = 2021 }
Wolf, Erik, Nathalie Merdan, Nina Döllinger, David Mal, Carolin Wienrich, Mario Botsch, and Marc Erich Latoschik. The Embodiment of Photorealistic Avatars Influences Female Body Weight Perception in Virtual Reality. In Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR ’21). https://doi.org/10.1109/VR50410.2021.00027.
- [ Abstract ]
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
- [ DOI ]
Embodiment and body perception have become important research topics in the field of virtual reality (VR). VR is considered a particularly promising tool to support research and therapy in regard to distorted body weight perception. However, the influence of embodiment on body weight perception has yet to be clarified. To address this gap, we compared body weight perception of 56 female participants of normal weight using a VR application. They either (a) self-embodied a photorealistic, non-personalized virtual human and performed body movements in front of a virtual mirror or (b) only observed the virtual human as other's avatar (or agent) performing the same movements in front of them. Afterward, participants had to estimate the virtual human's body weight. Additionally, we considered the influence of the participants' body mass index (BMI) on the estimations and captured the participants' feelings of presence and embodiment. Participants estimated the body weight of the virtual human as their embodied self-avatars significantly lower compared to participants rating the virtual human as other's avatar. Furthermore, the estimations of body weight were significantly predicted by the participant's BMI with embodiment, but not without. Our results clearly highlight embodiment as an important factor influencing the perception of virtual humans' body weights in VR.

@inproceedings{wolf2021embodiment, abstract = {Embodiment and body perception have become important research topics in the field of virtual reality (VR). VR is considered a particularly promising tool to support research and therapy in regard to distorted body weight perception. However, the influence of embodiment on body weight perception has yet to be clarified. To address this gap, we compared body weight perception of 56 female participants of normal weight using a VR application. They either (a) self-embodied a photorealistic, non-personalized virtual human and performed body movements in front of a virtual mirror or (b) only observed the virtual human as other's avatar (or agent) performing the same movements in front of them. Afterward, participants had to estimate the virtual human's body weight. Additionally, we considered the influence of the participants' body mass index (BMI) on the estimations and captured the participants' feelings of presence and embodiment. Participants estimated the body weight of the virtual human as their embodied self-avatars significantly lower compared to participants rating the virtual human as other's avatar. Furthermore, the estimations of body weight were significantly predicted by the participant's BMI with embodiment, but not without. Our results clearly highlight embodiment as an important factor influencing the perception of virtual humans' body weights in VR.}, author = {Wolf, Erik and Merdan, Nathalie and Döllinger, Nina and Mal, David and Wienrich, Carolin and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 28th IEEE Virtual Reality Conference (VR '21)}, keywords = {m.botsch}, title = {The Embodiment of Photorealistic Avatars Influences Female Body Weight Perception in Virtual Reality}, year = 2021 }

2020[ to top ]

Wolf, Erik, Nina Döllinger, David Mal, Carolin Wienrich, Mario Botsch, and Marc Erich Latoschik. Body Weight Perception of Females using Photorealistic Avatars in Virtual and Augmented Reality. In 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR), 462-73. https://downloads.hci.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de/2020-ismar-body-weight-perception-vr-ar-preprint.pdf.
- [ BibTeX ]
- [ URL ]
@inproceedings{wolf2020bodyweight, author = {Wolf, Erik and Döllinger, Nina and Mal, David and Wienrich, Carolin and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, booktitle = {2020 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR)}, keywords = {m.botsch}, pages = {462-473}, title = {Body Weight Perception of Females using Photorealistic Avatars in Virtual and Augmented Reality}, year = 2020 }

2019[ to top ]

Döllinger, Nina, Carolin Wienrich, Erik Wolf, Mario Botsch, and Marc Erich Latoschik. ViTraS-virtual reality therapy by stimulation of modulated body image-project outline. Mensch Und Computer 2019-Workshopband, 2019.
- [ BibTeX ]
@article{dollinger2019vitras, author = {Döllinger, Nina and Wienrich, Carolin and Wolf, Erik and Botsch, Mario and Latoschik, Marc Erich}, journal = {Mensch und Computer 2019-Workshopband}, keywords = {m.botsch}, publisher = {Gesellschaft für Informatik eV}, title = {ViTraS-virtual reality therapy by stimulation of modulated body image-project outline}, year = 2019 }
Wienrich, Carolin, Nina Döllinger, Simon Kock, and Klaus Gramann. User-Centered Extension of a Locomotion Typology: Movement-Related Sensory Feedback and Spatial Learning. In 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), 690-98. IEEE, 2019.
- [ BibTeX ]
@inproceedings{wienrich2019user, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and Döllinger, Nina and Kock, Simon and Gramann, Klaus}, booktitle = {2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR)}, keywords = {interaction_paradigm}, organization = {IEEE}, pages = {690-698}, title = {User-Centered Extension of a Locomotion Typology: Movement-Related Sensory Feedback and Spatial Learning}, year = 2019 }

2018[ to top ]

Wienrich, Carolin, Nina D{\"o}llinger, Simon Kock, Kristina Schindler, and Ole Traupe. Assessing user experience in virtual reality-a comparison of different measurements. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability, 573-89. Springer, 2018.
- [ BibTeX ]
@inproceedings{wienrich2018assessing, author = {Wienrich, Carolin and D{\"o}llinger, Nina and Kock, Simon and Schindler, Kristina and Traupe, Ole}, booktitle = {International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability}, keywords = {change_experience}, organization = {Springer}, pages = {573-589}, title = {Assessing user experience in virtual reality-a comparison of different measurements}, year = 2018 }

Invited Talks

2019

09.04.2019: Guest lecture at the College of Industrial Technology, NIHON University, Japan; Title: Challenges of Human-Computer-Interaction in Virtual Reality
12.05.2019: Lecture at the Pictoplasma Berlin Festival and Conference 2019; Title: Content vs. Technology – Effect of Accordance on Human Perceptions and Reactions