Table 1.

Checklist of Crucial Factors in Turning Virtual Reality into Reality

The person’s physical state and what the person is wearing and holding and the manner in which they are positioned in the virtual environment should all parallel reality. For instance, holding a VR controller might interfere with simulation of grabbing.

Environments must be designed so that participants feel that all pertinent objects are available for interaction. Objects in a virtual environment must be perceived as available for actual action and manipulation.

All relevant senses need to be involved in a VR environment, not just sight, but smell, sound, and touch (textures).

Care must be taken that irrelevant externalities (laboratory conditions, VR equipment, people in the actual environment) do not interfere with the VR environment.

Attention needs to be isolated to the focal simulation object rather than to other irrelevant factors inside the simulation, such as unusual-looking people or unfamiliar noises, unless such elements would have parallel effects in a real-world environment.

Allocation of attention must be similar to that in a parallel real-world situation, without undue attention being focused on focal study objects.

Care must be taken to ensure cognitive involvement of the participant matches the level of involvement in the actual situation.

Conditions in the environment must parallel those of reality since even peripheral elements might interact with focal elements in simulation to determine outcomes.

When studying habits, all triggering cues upon which habits are dependent must be available since habits are context dependent.

The spatial characteristics of the virtual environment must be taken into account (e.g., when studying spatial distortions, for instance, two-dimensional versus three-dimensional).