Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality

Elise Bonnail; Julian Frommel; Eric Lecolinet; Samuel Huron; Jan Gugenheimer

doi:10.1145/3613904.3641992

Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality

Elise Bonnail, Julian Frommel, Eric Lecolinet, Samuel Huron, Jan Gugenheimer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Source confusion occurs when individuals attribute a memory to the wrong source (e.g., confusing a picture with an experienced event). Virtual Reality (VR) represents a new source of memories particularly prone to being confused with reality. While previous research identified causes of source confusion between reality and other sources (e.g., imagination, pictures), there is currently no understanding of what characteristics specific to VR (e.g., immersion, presence) could influence source confusion. Through a laboratory study (n=29), we 1) confirm the existence of VR source confusion with current technology, and 2) present a quantitative and qualitative exploration of factors influencing VR source confusion. Building on the Source Monitoring Framework, we identify VR characteristics and assumptions about VR capabilities (e.g., poor rendering) that are used to distinguish virtual from real memories. From these insights, we reflect on how the increasing realism of VR could leave users vulnerable to memory errors and perceptual manipulations.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems
Place of Publication	New York, NY, USA
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Number of pages	17
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400703300
ISBN (Print)	9798400703300
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641992
Publication status	Published - 2024

Publication series

Name	Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Copyright held by the owner/author(s)

Funding

This work was partly supported by French government funding managed by the National Research Agency under the Investments for the Future program (PIA) grant ANR-21-ESRE-0030 (CONTINUUM), and the Living Lab 5G project financed by the Banque Publique d'Investissement (BPI), as well as the Futur & Ruptures program financed by the Institut Mines T\u00E9l\u00E9com (IMT), the Institut Carnot TSN and the Fondation Mines-T\u00E9l\u00E9com. We thank Guilia Mannaioli, Lais Isabelle Alves Dos Santos, and Rafael Senna Benatti who helped with the implementation of the study setup, as well as all the study participants for their time, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback.

Funders	Funder number
CONTINUUM
Fondation Mines-Télécom
Institut Mines-Télécom
Association Instituts Carnot
Bpifrance
Agence Nationale de la Recherche	ANR-21-ESRE-0030
Agence Nationale de la Recherche

Keywords

Memory
Source Confusion
Source Misattribution
Virtual Reality

Access to Document

10.1145/3613904.3641992

3613904.3641992Final published version, 4.59 MBLicence: Taverne

Cite this

Bonnail, E., Frommel, J., Lecolinet, E., Huron, S., & Gugenheimer, J. (2024). Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality. In CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems Article 796 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641992

Bonnail, Elise ; Frommel, Julian ; Lecolinet, Eric et al. / Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality. CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

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Bonnail, E, Frommel, J, Lecolinet, E, Huron, S & Gugenheimer, J 2024, Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality. in CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems., 796, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641992

Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality. / Bonnail, Elise; Frommel, Julian; Lecolinet, Eric et al.
CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2024. 796 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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Bonnail E, Frommel J, Lecolinet E, Huron S, Gugenheimer J. Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality. In CHI 2024 - Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Sytems. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. 2024. 796. (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). doi: 10.1145/3613904.3641992

Was it Real or Virtual? Confirming the Occurrence and Explaining Causes of Memory Source Confusion between Reality and Virtual Reality

Abstract

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Bibliographical note

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Keywords

Access to Document

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