Collaborative virtual environments: the effects of task component complexity on psychological well-being and the moderating role of informal communication

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) are increasingly used for remote collaboration, yet their psychological implications remain underexplored. This study examined how task component complexity (TCC) and informal communication (IC) influenced selected indicators of on-site operators’ psychological well-being and task performance in an MR-based CVE. A 2 × 2 mixed-design experiment was conducted with 40 participants in a standardised participant–experimenter remote collaboration setting. Compared with easy tasks, complex tasks significantly increased self-efficacy and self-esteem, reduced situational motivation decay and self-disclosure weakening, and prolonged task completion time, but did not significantly affect error count. IC significantly reduced task completion time and error count and significantly moderated the effects of TCC on self-disclosure weakening and task completion time. These findings indicate that the effects of both TCC and IC are context dependent and shape selected indicators of psychological well-being and performance in MR-enabled remote collaboration.