@article{QiBruchKropetal.2021,
  author    = {Qi, Yanyan and Bruch, Dorothee and Krop, Philipp and Herrmann, Martin J. and Latoschik, Marc E. and Deckert, J{\"u}rgen and Hein, Grit},
  title     = {Social buffering of human fear is shaped by gender, social concern, and the presence of real vs virtual agents},
  series = {Translational Psychiatry},
  volume    = {11},
  journal   = {Translational Psychiatry},
  doi       = {10.1038/s41398-021-01761-5},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-265782},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {The presence of a partner can attenuate physiological fear responses, a phenomenon known as social buffering. However, not all individuals are equally sociable. Here we investigated whether social buffering of fear is shaped by sensitivity to social anxiety (social concern) and whether these effects are different in females and males. We collected skin conductance responses (SCRs) and affect ratings of female and male participants when they experienced aversive and neutral sounds alone (alone treatment) or in the presence of an unknown person of the same gender (social treatment). Individual differences in social concern were assessed based on a well-established questionnaire. Our results showed that social concern had a stronger effect on social buffering in females than in males. The lower females scored on social concern, the stronger the SCRs reduction in the social compared to the alone treatment. The effect of social concern on social buffering of fear in females disappeared if participants were paired with a virtual agent instead of a real person. Together, these results showed that social buffering of human fear is shaped by gender and social concern. In females, the presence of virtual agents can buffer fear, irrespective of individual differences in social concern. These findings specify factors that shape the social modulation of human fear, and thus might be relevant for the treatment of anxiety disorders.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{WienrichKommaVogtetal.2021,
  author    = {Wienrich, Carolin and Komma, Philipp and Vogt, Stephanie and Latoschik, Marc E.},
  title     = {Spatial Presence in Mixed Realities - Considerations About the Concept, Measures, Design, and Experiments},
  series = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality},
  volume    = {2},
  journal   = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality},
  doi       = {10.3389/frvir.2021.694315},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-260328},
  year      = {2021},
  abstract  = {Plenty of theories, models, measures, and investigations target the understanding of virtual presence, i.e., the sense of presence in immersive Virtual Reality (VR). Other varieties of the so-called eXtended Realities (XR), e.g., Augmented and Mixed Reality (AR and MR) incorporate immersive features to a lesser degree and continuously combine spatial cues from the real physical space and the simulated virtual space. This blurred separation questions the applicability of the accumulated knowledge about the similarities of virtual presence and presence occurring in other varieties of XR, and corresponding outcomes. The present work bridges this gap by analyzing the construct of presence in mixed realities (MR). To achieve this, the following presents (1) a short review of definitions, dimensions, and measurements of presence in VR, and (2) the state of the art views on MR. Additionally, we (3) derived a working definition of MR, extending the Milgram continuum. This definition is based on entities reaching from real to virtual manifestations at one time point. Entities possess different degrees of referential power, determining the selection of the frame of reference. Furthermore, we (4) identified three research desiderata, including research questions about the frame of reference, the corresponding dimension of transportation, and the dimension of realism in MR. Mainly the relationship between the main aspects of virtual presence of immersive VR, i.e., the place-illusion, and the plausibility-illusion, and of the referential power of MR entities are discussed regarding the concept, measures, and design of presence in MR. Finally, (5) we suggested an experimental setup to reveal the research heuristic behind experiments investigating presence in MR. The present work contributes to the theories and the meaning of and approaches to simulate and measure presence in MR. We hypothesize that research about essential underlying factors determining user experience (UX) in MR simulations and experiences is still in its infancy and hopes this article provides an encouraging starting point to tackle related questions.},
  language  = {en}
}