Denominación de Ciudad desde la Teoría de Max Weber

The research hypothesis was investigated and tested in four related experi- ments which all addressed different underlying questions. This section gives an overview of the motivation and goals of each study, and explains the relationships between them and the conditions involved.

Study 1 Study 2 Study 3 Study 4

Name Desert Survival

Game (DSG)

Dream House Dogs & Own- ers

Celebrity Quotes

Details in Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Task type Conversational

game

3D design re- view

Photo review Collaborative game

Main objective

explore social replicate and investigate investigate

presence strengthen impact of impact of

measures findings spatiality transportation

Table 3.1: The four experiments in chronological order.

Table 3.1 shows the four studies in chronological order and names them according to their experimental tasks. These names will be used consistently in the remainder of this thesis to refer to the studies. As can be seen in the table, tasks and task types varied across the four studies.

The studies built upon each other. Experiment “DSG” explored suitable subjective measures which allow insights as to which VMC interface supports a “feeling” more similar to being face-to-face. It tested two social presence scales and a questionnaire on communication aspects for their power to dis- criminate between a standard video-conferencing system, a video-CVE, and a face-to-face condition. Results obtained from each scale were also explored

for indications whether video-CVEs push the collaborative experience further towards the face-to-face gold standard.

Experiment “Dream House” re-applied one of the two social presence measures in an attempt to replicate and strengthen a finding from the first experiment. It also explored the questions if a higher level of transportation of an interface leads to a higher sense physical presence at a remote space, and, whether or not there is a relationship between the sense of physical presence and social presence.

The findings of the first two studies provided valuable experiences, both methodologically and substantively, which informed the design and the more specific research questions of experiments “Dogs and Owners” and “Celebrity Quotes”.

The study “Dogs and Owners” investigated if added spatiality in VMC fosters face-to-face-like collaboration. It applied a set of subjective scales and included an objective video analysis to compare collaborative behaviour.

Finally, the fourth experiment “Celebrity Quotes” complements the third study by changing the focus to the transportation aspect of a video-CVE. In particular, it investigated if video-CVEs with a higher level of transportation induce a feeling and support collaboration that is more similar to being face- to-face. It used subjective measures, video analysis, as well a relatively new method of analysing communication transcripts based on word counts.

Table 3.2 summarises the types of measures applied by each experiment in a side-by-side view.

Subjective Video Transcription

ratings analysis analysis

DSG: •

Dream House: •

Dogs and Owners: • •

Celebrity Quotes: • • •

Table 3.2: Types of measures applied in the four studies

Experimental Conditions: Five different experimental conditions were applied and some of them were used repeatedly. For example, all studies

included a standard video conferencing condition and a desktop video-CVE. Further spatial control conditions were added in compliance with the given research focus. All conditions were furthermore designed and coordinated to cover different points along the dimension of transportation (see Table 3.3). The experimental conditions can also be categorised based on their sup- port for fundamental spatial properties into places or spaces. Table 3.4 shows one such classification. The face-to-face conditions are not included here since the concept of spatiality applies only to interface properties of shared-space systems (Benford et al. 1996).

FtF Video 2D video- Desktop Immersive

meeting table conf. video- video-

CVE CVE

DSG: • • •

Dream House: • •

Dogs and Owners: • • • •

Celebrity Quotes: • • • •

-

local Transportation remote

Table 3.3: The conditions included in the four experiments as indicated by a bullet point, arranged along the dimension of transportation.

2D video Video- Video

conferencing CVE table

DSG: • •

Dream House: • •

Dogs and Owners: • • •

Celebrity Quotes: • •a_•b a_{desktop monitor}

b_{stereoscopic projection}

“Place” “Space”

Table 3.4: Conditions included in the four experiments as indicated by a bullet point, categorised according to their degree of spatiality as place or space.

added spatiality in VMC systems. Besides a standard video conferencing and a video-CVE condition it also included the control condition “Video table”, an interface based on video streams in a physically-fixed arrangement around an interactive table. The rationale behind this approach is that by comparing two different spatial interfaces with the non-spatial one, differences that are found can be more easily ascribed to high level spatial properties rather than to low level usability features of the systems involved. Since the condition “Video table” creates a shared reference frame based around a local, physical table, it is located closer towards the local end on the transportation axis.

The study “Celebrity Quotes” investigated the dimension of transporta- tion, or more specifically, the impact of more or less “remoteness” of an in- terface. It included the control condition “Immersive video-CVE”, which utilised a large-screen stereo-projection to display the same virtual envi- ronment which was otherwise presented on a smaller, conventional desktop screen. The rationale for this control condition is that bigger and more im- mersive displays are more likely to induce a stronger sense of actually being or existing in the displayed virtual, remote space by blocking out more stimuli from one’s actual, local environment. On the transportation axis the con- dition “Immersive video-CVE” therefore assumes a position which is more remote than the condition “Desktop video-CVE”.

In all conditions, the dimensions of transportation and the notions of space and place as extremes of the dimension spatiality are related. Spaces (interfaces that support distant users with a consistent, three-dimensional, shared, navigable environment) can only be either local (remote information is consistently integrated into the user’s local space) or remote (user leaves body behind and enters in a shared virtual space). Places, on the contrary, only contain a non-spatial context for participants and hence are neither local nor remote. On the transportation axis, places therefore always lie between local and remote spaces.

Participants: The subjects for the user studies were recruited from stu- dents and staff at the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago. Either two or three participants formed a group which first used and then evaluated the experimental conditions. The more explorative studies “DSG”

and “Dream House” did not assume specific participant profiles in the re- cruitment process but investigated demographic effects on the data collected to inform the recruitment process of subsequent experiments.

The studies “Dogs and Owners” and “Celebrity Quotes”, however, had a more specific research focus. To minimise unwanted side effects, participating teams were recruited as “same gender friends”. Table 3.5 shows a side-by-side overview of participant parameters involved in the studies.

knew each Participants Group size Gender other before?

DSG: 42 3 * *

Dream House: 36 2 * *

Dogs and Owners: 26 2 same sex yes

Celebrity Quotes: 36 2 same sex yes

* = not controlled

Table 3.5: Overview of participants recruited in the four experiments.

The following chapters present each individual study including the results obtained in more detail.