ABSTRACT
In this research, we examined the influence of tactile feedback within a virtual environment on individuals’ motivation while they performed repetitive tasks. We compared scenarios just involving visual stimuli to those incorporating both visual and tactile stimuli. Previous studies on touch interactions with robots demonstrated multiple positive effects, such as increased motivation, although distinguishing between visual and haptic stimuli in physical environments has proven to be difficult. Virtual settings allow us to explore these effects by differentiating touch modalities: visual-only touch and visual-tactile touch. We carried out an experiment in a virtual environment where participants completed a monotonous task after receiving either a visual-only touch or a visual-tactile touch from a virtual agent. This comparison was designed to evaluate the differences in motivation enhancement and perceived impressions. Our findings indicate that visual-tactile touch significantly improved the participants’ motivation compared to visual-only touch. We note that the touch modalities did not significantly impact the participants’ perception of the likeability of the agents.
