Embodied Experiences in Immersive Virtual Environments: Effects on Pro-Environmental Attitude and Behavior
Immersive virtual environments (IVE) allow users experience vivid sensorimotor stimuli by digitally simulati ng sensorimotor information. As a result, users are able to embody experiences by seeing, hearing, and feeling realistic perceptual cues linked to those experiences. Embodied experiences are defined as being surrounded by simulated sensorimotor information in mediated environments that create the sensation of personally undergoing the experience at that moment. Based on the theoretical framework of embodied cognition, which stipulates a close connection between sensorimotor experiences of the body and mental schemas, the current dissertation studies demonstrated that embodied experiences in IVEs are able to influence attitudes and behavior s in the physical, non-mediated world.