Abstract

Abstract
Immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) is a promising educational tool for learning a second/foreign language. However, interactive iVR studies remain in their infancy, with more research required to validate what and how it can be implemented. This study focuses on the English listening dimension and evaluates the impact of a realistic interactive iVR compared to traditional listening exercises. The results were favourable and indicated that interactive iVR positively impacts the users' knowledge retention compared to a traditional listening approach. Likewise, the users revealed a preference for using iVR for learning when compared to traditional listening exercises, as well as higher user satisfaction with the iVR experiment.

Abstract
This paper presents a study comparing different user interface modes (Controller-Based Selection, Object Interaction, and Voice Recognition) within immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) environments for foreign language learning. Given the rapid advancements and potential of iVR in education, there is a need for focused research on optimising user interfaces for effective learning experiences. This study aimed to identify optimal interfaces for integrating iVR applications as complementary educational tools while gauging student preferences. Participants engaged in interactive learning tasks across the three conditions, with assessments focused on System Usability, Presence, User Satisfaction, Cybersickness, Learning Outcomes, and Task Duration. Findings indicate high usability across all conditions, with a preference observed for Controller-Based Selection and Object Interaction. Object Interaction showed strong motivational appeal but required more time to complete tasks than Controller-Based. Therefore, for time-constrained educational settings, the Controller-Based Selection interface is practical due to its lower physical effort requirement. Despite recent advances, our study found Voice Recognition interaction to be the least preferred interaction method, indicating a need for further technological improvements to boost its acceptance and effectiveness in educational contexts.

Abstract
Incidental visualizations are meant to be perceived at-a-glance, on-the-go, and during short exposure times, but are not seen on demand. Instead, they appear in people's fields of view during an ongoing primary task. They differ from glanceable visualizations because the information is not received on demand, and they differ from ambient visualizations because the information is not continuously embedded in the environment. However, current graphical perception guidelines do not consider situations where information is presented at specific moments during brief exposure times without being the user's primary focus. Therefore, we conducted a crowdsourced user study with 99 participants to understand how accurate people's incidental graphical perception is. Each participant was tested on one of the three conditions: position of dots, length of lines, and angle of lines. We varied the number of elements for each combination and the display time. During the study, participants were asked to perform reproduction tasks, where they had to recreate a previously shown stimulus in each. Our results indicate that incidental graphical perception can be accurate when using position, length, and angles. Furthermore, we argue that incidental visualizations should be designed for low exposure times (between 300 and 1000 ms).

Abstract
Incidental visualizations convey information to a person during an ongoing primary task, without the person consciously searching for or requesting that information. They differ from glanceable visualizations by not being people's main focus, and from ambient visualizations by not being embedded in the environment. Instead, they are presented as secondary information that can be observed without a person losing focus on their current task. However, despite extensive research on glanceable and ambient visualizations, the topic of incidental visualizations is yet a novel topic in current research. To bridge this gap, we conducted an empirical user study presenting participants with an incidental visualization while performing a primary task. We aimed to understand how complexity contributory factors - task complexity, output complexity, and pressure - affected primary task performance and incidental visualization accuracy. Our findings showed that incidental visualizations effectively conveyed information without disrupting the primary task, but working memory limitations should be considered. Additionally, output and pressure significantly influenced the primary task's results. In conclusion, our study provides insights into the perception accuracy and performance impact of incidental visualizations in relation to complexity factors. (c) 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Zhejiang University and Zhejiang University Press Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Abstract