scholarly journals Can Virtual Observers Affect Our Behavior? Social Facilitation in Virtual Environments: A Mini-Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Radosław Sterna ◽  
Paweł Strojny ◽  
Krzysztof Rębilas
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Inhibition ◽  
Experimental Room ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Definite Answer ◽  
The Social ◽  
Pilot Tests

The social facilitation effect describes the change in the performance of the task under the influence of the presence of observers. The effect itself consists of two components: social facilitation in simple tasks and social inhibition in complex tasks. In the context of the dynamic development of new technologies, the question of the possible influence on human behavior by virtual characters gains importance. We attempted to critically describe and summarize current research on social facilitation in order to answer the question of whether it occurs in virtual environments. We found 13 relevant studies, 3 of which demonstrated social facilitation, 4 social inhibition and 1 demonstrated the whole effect. The conclusions drawn from the analysis are ambiguous. Firstly, we identified that 12 out of 13 analyzed studies failed to show the whole effect. Secondly, we encountered several shortcomings of the summarized research that further complicated its interpretation. The shortcomings: presence of the researcher, unclear usage of “agent” and “avatar”, evaluation of activation, no pilot tests of observers and no description of how their characteristics are generated, among others, are discussed. Furthermore, we investigated the effect sizes and their variability. The average effect size for social facilitation was g = 0.18, CI [-0.28; 0.64] and for social inhibition g = -0.18, CI [-0.40; 0.04]. In social facilitation, a substantial level of heterogeneity was detected. Finally, we conclude that it is still too early to provide a definite answer to the question of whether social facilitation exists in Virtual Environments. We recommend limiting evaluation activation to the lowest possible level, conducting pilot tests prior to the experiment, avoiding the presence of the researcher in the experimental room and a clear distinction of “agent” and “avatar”, as measures to achieve a better quality in future research.

scholarly journals Replicating Roaches: A Preregistered Direct Replication of Zajonc, Heingartner, and Herman’s (1969) Social-Facilitation Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-337
Author(s):  
Emma Halfmann ◽  
Janne Bredehöft ◽  
Jan Alexander Häusser
Keyword(s):  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Social Inhibition ◽  
Major Conclusion ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Impaired Performance ◽  
Inhibition Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Main Effects ◽  
And Task

Fifty years ago, Zajonc, Heingartner, and Herman (1969) conducted a famous experiment on social enhancement and inhibition of performance in cockroaches. A moderating effect of task difficulty on the effect of the presence of an audience, as revealed by impaired performance in complex tasks and enhanced performance in simple tasks, was presented as the major conclusion of this research. However, the researchers did not test this interaction statistically. We conducted a preregistered direct replication using a 2 (audience: present vs. absent) × 2 (task difficulty: runway vs. maze) between-subjects design. Results revealed main effects for task difficulty, with faster running times in the runway than the maze, and for audience, with slower running times when the audience was present than when it was absent. There was no interaction between the presence of an audience and task difficulty. Although we replicated the social-inhibition effect, there was no evidence for a social-facilitation effect.

Antiphonal exchanges in African elephants (Loxodonta africana): collective response to a shared stimulus, social facilitation, or true communicative event?

Behaviour ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 145 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Savage ◽  
Joseph Soltis ◽  
Katherine Leighty ◽  
Kirsten Leong
Keyword(s):  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Individual Identification ◽  
Vocal Response ◽  
African Elephants ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Independent Effects ◽  
The Individual ◽  
External Stimuli

AbstractFemale African elephants are thought to exchange 'rumble' vocalizations, but such temporally associated calls may not constitute communicative events. Affiliated females are more likely to engage in antiphonal calling, but affiliation is defined according to time spent in proximity. Affiliated partners may vocalize in sequence simply because their proximity causes them to collectively respond to shared external stimuli or due to a social facilitation effect. We used bi-variate and partial correlation analyses to test for the independent effects of the strength of the social relationship and distance between vocal partners on the likelihood of a vocal response. Female African elephants at Disney's Animal Kingdom were video-taped and outfitted with audio-recording collars that allowed for the individual identification of low-frequency rumbles. Affiliation had a strong influence on response likelihood, even after controlling for the effects of the distance between vocalizing partners. Further, the distance between vocalizing partners did not correlate with response likelihood, and factoring out the effects of affiliation did not significantly alter this result. These results suggest that rumble exchanges are communicative events that reflect social bonds, not simply artifacts of increased proximity and, therefore, provide support for functional hypotheses concerning rumble exchanges in wild African elephants.

Failure and its Relationship to the Social Facilitation Effect: Evidence for a Learned Drive Interpretation of the Social Facilitation Effect

1978 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Lombardo ◽  
John F. Catalano
Keyword(s):  
Conditioned Stimulus ◽  
Classical Conditioning ◽  
Factorial Design ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
The Other ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complex Motor ◽  
Drive Effect

Social facilitation theory states that an audience functions as a conditioned stimulus for generalized drive and that this drive effect is learned through classical conditioning. In the present study an attempt was made to condition classically an aversive drive to an audience by having a subject fail a task in front of an audience. A sample of 61 subjects took part in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Half of the subjects did not perform a first task but only a complex motor task. Half of these subjects performed in the presence of an audience, half without an audience present. Of those subjects exposed to failure on the first task, half performed a second complex motor task in the presence of the same audience. Results indicated that performance of subjects who failed a first task in the presence of an audience and then performed the second task in the presence of that audience was significantly poorer than all of the other groups. The findings were taken as evidence that the social facilitation effect may be based on an aversive learned drive.

Social Facilitation following Response Prevention in the Rat

1978 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-133
Author(s):  
Donald P. Corriveau ◽  
Katherine Contildes ◽  
Nelson F. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Avoidance Response ◽  
Social Facilitation ◽  
Conditioned Avoidance ◽  
Response Prevention ◽  
Conditioned Avoidance Response ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Facilitation Effect ◽  
Approach Behavior ◽  
Fear Reduction ◽  
The Social

Baum (1969) found that the presence of a nonfearful rat during response prevention facilitated fear reduction. However, Baum used the problematic “reduction in the conditioned avoidance response” as a measure of fear. The present study re-examined the social facilitation effect by examining approach behavior as an index of fear. 60 male rats either received or did not receive response prevention. These treatments were presented either alone or in the presence of a mobile or immobile nonfearful rat. Although all measures of fear showed significant response prevention, none showed social facilitation. The discrepancy between these results and those of Baum was explained by hypothesizing the conditioning of incompatible responses within the context of avoidance procedures.

scholarly journals Exploring the efficacy of pre-service teachers as makers of virtual language/culture learning environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Sabrina Priego ◽  
Meei-Ling Liaw
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Computer Assisted Language Learning ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Social

Previous literature in the area of computer assisted language learning in Second/Foreign Language (L2/FL) education has highlighted the benefits of using virtual environments for learning the target language and culture (e.g. Blyth, 2018; Lloyd, Rogerson, & Stead, 2017; Shih, 2015). In addition, a number of researchers have demonstrated that one of the important attributes of virtual environments for language learning is the affordances of physical and social presence (e.g. Cho, Yim, & Paik, 2015; McKerlich, Riis, Anderson, & Eastman, 2011; Peterson, 2011; Wang, Lawless-Reljic, Davies, & Callaghan, 2011). However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated the affordances of virtual environments from the makers’ point of view. In this present study, 22 Canadian pre-service teachers used a 360 degree camera and Virtual Reality (VR) software to construct VR environments that were used as cultural virtual tours. They then invited 24 Taiwanese students to interact with them in their created immersive environments. Analyses of the pre-service teachers’ final written reflections showed that most of them reported that they experienced a sense of physical and social presence in their self-created VR environments and that they enjoyed participating in the VR project. However, various factors, such as the design of the task, technical difficulties with the VR equipment, and limits of the social VR network were also found to have negatively influenced their satisfaction with the VR experience. Findings from this study might inform other L2/FL teachers who design VR environments and integrate social VR in their classes. Suggestions for future research are also provided.

scholarly journals Sociomaterialidade e Análise Organizacional: da Retórica à Relevância

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (97) ◽  
pp. 241-264
Author(s):  
Edvalter Becker Holz
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
The Social

Abstract This essay expands upon the debate on sociomateriality with a critique of the current ontological agenda. Based upon the influential literature from the fields of management and organization studies, and information systems, it presents the emergence, the development, the consolidation and the popularization of the debate on the relations between the social and the material in organizations. Drawing on this trajectory, the paper suggests that the current agenda for a sociomaterial ontology is constituted predominantly through rhetorical uses of the notion of ontology. The relevance of this contribution lies in questioning the supposed development of a sociomaterial ontology, describing and exemplifying its rhetorical strategies: authorial randomness, theoretical centrifugation, and conceptual procrastination. It concludes that it is necessary to return to the phenomenon as relevant “in” the debate from the point of view of its trajectory: the diffusion of new technologies and the subsequent implications at the organizational and social levels. The main implication for future research is the adoption of pragmatic ontologies with the aim of restoring the primacy of the phenomenon over the ontology.

scholarly journals Sociomateriality and Organizational Analysis: from Rhetoric to Relevance

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (97) ◽  
pp. 241-264
Author(s):  
Edvalter Becker Holz
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
The Social

Abstract This essay expands upon the debate on sociomateriality with a critique of the current ontological agenda. Based upon the influential literature from the fields of management and organization studies, and information systems, it presents the emergence, the development, the consolidation and the popularization of the debate on the relations between the social and the material in organizations. Drawing on this trajectory, the paper suggests that the current agenda for a sociomaterial ontology is constituted predominantly through rhetorical uses of the notion of ontology. The relevance of this contribution lies in questioning the supposed development of a sociomaterial ontology, describing and exemplifying its rhetorical strategies: authorial randomness, theoretical centrifugation, and conceptual procrastination. It concludes that it is necessary to return to the phenomenon as relevant “in” the debate from the point of view of its trajectory: the diffusion of new technologies and the subsequent implications at the organizational and social levels. The main implication for future research is the adoption of pragmatic ontologies with the aim of restoring the primacy of the phenomenon over the ontology.

Social Psychology and Language

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C. Baker ◽  
Bernadette M. Watson ◽  
Cindy Gallois
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Language Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Language is a social behavior and a key aspect of social interaction. Language is ubiquitous and usually occurs with other human behaviors across diverse contexts. Thus, it is difficult to study it in isolation. This difficulty may be why most, albeit not all, social psychologists tend to neglect language, in spite of the prominence of language in early 20th century social psychology and the presence of numerous handbooks and reviews of this area. Language use has implications for many social psychological processes, and, given its role in daily social life, it is important to understand its social underpinnings. The field of language and social psychology highlights the relationship between language and communication and foregrounds the differences between the social-psychological and communication approaches. One central issue is bilingualism and the relationships among language, identity, and culture. Another is methodology, where social psychologists have tended to choose experimental and survey strategies to look at language (not always to the best advantage). This century has seen the development of new technologies that allow us to look at language on a large scale and in rich detail and that have the potential to transform this research. In part as a consequence, in the early 21st century there are many new topics emerging in language and social psychology that help to set a new agenda for future research.

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