Comparing Physiological Synchrony and User Copresent Experience in Virtual Reality: A Quantitative–Qualitative Gap

As technology-mediated social interaction in virtual environments prevails, recent Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) studies have suggested incorporating biosensory information cues that reveal users’ inner states to facilitate social information sharing and augment copresent experience. Physiological synchrony is believed to be engaged in several important processes of copresent experience. However, what impact different biosensory cues have on physiological synchrony and users’ copresent experience remains underinvestigated. This study selected a virtual reality (VR) electronic dance music setting and integrated five different biosignals, namely, power of electromyography (pEMG), galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR), respiration effort (RE), and oxyhemoglobin saturation by pulse oximetry (SpO2). A non-randomized controlled experiment with 67 valid participants and five baseline data providers revealed that GSR enhanced physiological synchrony significantly. However, semi-structure interviews with 10 participants indicated that RE and HR provided the strongest user-perceived copresence, which implies an intriguing gap between quantitative and qualitative analysis results. Five design implications were further generated and discussed in details for the future design and development of virtual copresent experience based on biosensory information cues.