Gifted Child Quarterly

Uhrig S.

The present book aims to develop a process-oriented, multi-method approach toward speech quality assessment, for examining effects of varying speech transmission quality on information processing in human listeners. In addition to methods for conventional subjective speech quality assessment, this chapter introduces more recently applied behavioral and physiological techniques and paradigms. Afterward, the different method classes are compared in view of several measurement criteria.

Uhrig S.

This chapter describes a conceptual model of speech quality perception for listening-only test scenarios, specifying internal processes and representations at different processing stages (sensory, perceptual, and response-related). Components of the event-related brain potential (ERP) are linked to specific internal processes as psychophysiological indicators. The final paragraph lists research questions that are to be addressed in three studies (Chaps. 5 – 7 ).

Uhrig S.

This chapter defines important concept pairs, such as quality of experience versus quality of service, quality elements versus quality features, and perceived quality versus judged quality, which will be referred to throughout the present book. Two ways of describing, explaining, and predicting speech quality perception on psychophysical and functional (psychological and psychophysiological) levels are introduced.

Uhrig S.

This chapter integrates empirical result patterns identified in the earlier reported studies (Chaps. 5 – 7 ) by referring to different explanatory approaches toward speech quality perception (Chaps. 2 and 4 ). Specifically, the roles of resource allocationResource allocation and uncertaintyUncertainty during human information processing are theorized as underlying quality-related modulations of neural indicators.

Uhrig S.

This final chapter closes with a summary of the main results from the three studies (Chaps. 5 – 7 ), as well as the derived theoretical insights (Chap. 8 ). Possible future research directions are laid out for continuing the process-oriented, multi-method approach toward speech quality assessmentQuality assessment.

Uhrig S.

This chapter reports a third study on behavioral talker identification in a relatively more complex listening-only test scenario involving “turn-taking”Turn-taking scenario between two talkers. It is argued that listening subjects base their response strategy for talker identification on different internal processes of sound source localization and voice recognition, depending on the availability of different talker location cues during nonspatial (vocal cues) and spatial speech presentation modes (vocal and spatial cues).

Uhrig S.

This chapter reports a first study on perceptual discrimination of speech quality change along separate perceptual quality dimensions (“discontinuity,” “noisiness,” and “coloration”), as induced by different types of speech quality impairment (random frame loss, signal-correlated noise, and band-pass filtering). It is demonstrated that listening subjects are able to distinguish between these quality impairment types and associated perceptual dimensions, in case average perceived degradation intensities are kept constant. Arguably, distinct internal references are formed that represent these quality dimensions.

Uhrig S.

This chapter reports a second study on perceptual discrimination of speech quality change under simultaneously changing speech content. The results imply that double changes in quality and content are discriminated significantly faster than single quality changes, presumably because of higher perceptual salience of the former relative to the latter. Neural indication of quality change may be “attentionally masked” by concurrent content change, as the latter possessed a relatively higher informativeness or informational value than the former, involving additional variation in semantic meaning beyond mere variation in perceived form.

Uhrig S.

This introduction chapter provides an initial outline of the research field of speech quality assessment, before leading up to the main research topic of the present book: the systematic investigation of the effects of speech quality factors on human information processing, by following a process-based, multi-method approach.

Kojić T.

Great deal of progress has been made in the last few years with Virtual Reality (VR) technology (Bhowmik, Inf Display 33(6):20–32, 2017) as VR headsets of different complexity are now available to the general public and are used for more than just games. Today’s use cases for VR are many, owing to the ability to generate and immerse people in a variety of different virtual worlds and environments (Berg and Vance, Virtual Real 21(1):1–17, 2017). These virtual worlds replicate or even enhance the real world (Velev and Zlateva, Int J Learn Teach 3(1):33–37, 2017), hence expanding the prospects and market for VR. Each year, the number of individuals purchasing immersive technology grows, and by the end of 2024, it is estimated that VR will generate around 12.19 billion dollars in revenue worldwide (Alsop: Consumer and Enterprise VR Revenue Worldwide 2024, 2021). Further, predictions for the foreseeable future imply that such numbers will only rise. Even though most of its current popularity can be connected to the VR gaming industry, still, VR technology can be found and used in many other aspects. It can be used for a range of fields (Bastug et al., IEEE Commun Mag 55(6):110–117, 2017), including but not limited to education, sports, training, tourism, simulators, big data visualization, health care issues, and more. As a result, the purpose of the VR application in those fields is not the game itself but rather including game-design principles in a nongame context (Werbach and Hunter: For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business. Wharton Digital Press, Philadelphia, 2012). This means it is not primarily intended for entertainment, leading to those games being referred to as serious games (Deterding et al.: Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments, pp. 9–15. ACM, 2011).

Kojić T.

The methodology that was used for this research is presented in the overview based on the selected influencing subfactors and related research questions that have been the main focus of this work. As part of it, several different VR applications, each centered on a different set of features, were developed with the goal of investigating UX in VR serious gaming through empirical investigations done in a laboratory.

Kojić T.

This chapter aims to investigate how serious games’ content for VR technology influences UX. Content is a subfactor of the System IFs, and in the current overview for VR services, it is not included as a separate category but as a subcategory. Although Content is still considered a component of System IF, in gaming, it is further subdivided into Narrative, User Representation, Environment Design, and Supported Interactions. Such elements may also influence the experience of serious games in VR, which is what this chapter wants to investigate.

Kojić T.

The so-called second wave of VR has brought to research and market a lot of new displays, input devices, and content solutions during the last few years. Not only has new hardware entered the consumer market with low-cost price patterns, but whole new technologies are also being designed and developed.

Kojić T.

This thesis is focused on creating an overview between User Experience and Influencing Factors for VR serious games. The basis for this work was the UXIVE model composed of ten components extracted from existing models (presence, engagement, immersion, flow, usability, skill, emotion, experience consequence, judgment, and technology adoption), the ITU-T Rec. G.1032 Le Marc et al. (2010 IEEE International Technology Management Conference (ICE), pp. 1–12. IEEE, Piscataway, 2010) that focused on influencing factors of gaming quality of experience, and the ITU-T Rec. G.1035 (Influencing Factors on Quality of Experience for Virtual Reality Services. International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, 2021) that categorizes and analyzes the influencing factors for VR service.

Kojić T.

This chapter focuses on users engaged in a VR serious game and how various user attributes might impact UX. Because this study relies on questionnaires for assessment, physiological measures were excluded. As a result, demographic questionnaires were employed in all studies. Furthermore, immersion tendency and simulator sickness were not assessed for all conditions but were regulated throughout the tests. Age and gender (RQ4.1) were particularly highlighted as demographic factors, as was a prior experience with VR (RQ4.2). This study examined how users of various ages, genders, and levels of experience perceive the user experience in VR serious games.