Abstract
The overall goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness of computer animated spaces within the context of design professions, with particular attention to potential distortions of perceived distance that such animations might produce. Three questions were addressed: 1| Do observers accurately perceive the magnitude of distance represented in animated displays? 2) Does the manner in which animated space is divided affect the magnitudes of the distances perceived? 3) Are there differences between male and female observers in such accuracy?
Participants were 61 undergraduate psychology students at Washington State University. Computer animations provided participants seven “virtual walks” through computer generated corridors, some of which were divided into segments by open portals or doors. Following each virtual walk, participants were led to a nearby corridor and asked to walk a distance they perceived to be equal to the virtual walk they had just experienced at the computer.
Analysis of variance, with a posteriori Fisher LSD tests, showed that computer represented distances were consistently underestimated by both males and females, with females underestimating the distances to a significantly greater degree than males. The presence or number of segments present in the animated spaces had no significant effect on distance estimates.
These findings suggest that there may be important limitations in the extent to which computer animations represent distance for observers of both sexes, and that these limitations may be even more pronounced for females than for males. The manner in which the virtual spaces were segmented did not exert a consistent influence on the perception of distance; however, the manner in which virtual spaces are divided and the kind of visual features that are used to indicate such divisions merits further study.
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