Virtual Human Interaction Lab
Our Mission
Since its founding in 2003, researchers at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) have sought to better understand the psychological and behavioral effects of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). VR is finally widely available for consumers, and every day we are seeing new innovations. It is critical, now more than ever, that we seek answers to these important questions: What psychological processes operate when people use VR and AR? How does this medium fundamentally transform people and society? What happens when anyone can have a perfect experience at the touch of a button? And how can we actively seek to create and consume VR that enhances instead of detracts from the real world around us?
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Recent Research
- McGivney, E., Queiroz, A., Miller, M., Liu, S., Beams, B., Han, E., Woolsey, E., Frazier, K., Petersen, X., Hancock, J., & Bailenson, J. (2025). Complexity of Agency in VR Learning Environments: Exploring Associations with Interactivity, Learning Outcomes, and Affect. Immersive Learning Research Network, 2271. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-80475-5_5
- Markowitz, D., & Bailenson, J. (2025). A Looking Glass into a Research Wonderland: Decades of Virtual Reality Scholarship Explicated via Natural Language Processing. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2024.0576
- Wei, J., Siegel, E., Sundaramoorthy, P., Gomes, A., Zhang, S., Vankipuram, M., Smathers, K., Ghosh, S., Horii, H., Bailenson, J., & Ballagas, R. (2025). Cognitive Load Inference Using Physiological Markers in Virtual Reality. 2025 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR).
- Srirangarajan, T., Wang, P., & Bailenson, J. (2025). Multimodal Analytics in Virtual Reality (In press). Plass, J., Mayer, R. & Makransky, G. (Eds.), The Handbook of Learning in Virtual Reality.
- Wang, P., Srirangarajan, T., & Bailenson, J. (2025). Social Processes of Learning in Virtual Reality (In press). Plass, J., Mayer, R. & Makransky, G. (Eds.), The Handbook of Learning in Virtual Reality.