See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/339178206

Avatars as storytellers: affective narratives in virtual museums

Article  in  Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · February 2020

DOI: 10.1007/s00779-019-01358-2

CITATION READS

1 49

4 authors:

Stella Sylaiou Vlasios Kasapakis

Hellenic Open University University of the Aegean
81 PUBLICATIONS   773 CITATIONS    48 PUBLICATIONS   321 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Damianos Gavalas Elena Dzardanova

University of the Aegean University of the Aegean
195 PUBLICATIONS   3,215 CITATIONS    13 PUBLICATIONS   22 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Social Interaction in Virtual Reality Environments View project

Εικαστική Πορεία προς τις Πρέσπες View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Stella Sylaiou on 27 April 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-019-01358-2

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Avatars as storytellers: affective narratives in virtual museums

Stella Sylaiou 1 & Vlasios Kasapakis 2 & Damianos Gavalas 1 & Elena Dzardanova 1

Received: 6 August 2019 / Accepted: 14 December 2019

# Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract
This article explores the affective potential of virtual humans in virtual museum (VM) environments. Three avatars (personifying
a curator, a guard, and a visitor, respectively) have been employed as storytellers introducing participants to the emotive story
behind a historical sculpture. The emotional responses of a test group have been correlated to a range of factors, namely, the role
acted by the virtual storytellers, the subjects’ own stance on cultural heritage, gender, and predispositions towards the sense of
presence and affective responses. We review research related to the topic of presence and social presence in VMs, and position
our experimental procedure as well as the findings of our study in this context. Theoretical frameworks, such as the Expectancy
Violations Theory are used to interpret the key findings, which have not always confirmed the initial hypotheses. The outcome of
our study may inform the design of avatars-as-storytellers in VMs on the basis of their affective potential, given the results of the
study and, more importantly, the theoretical investigation of the factors, which conditioned the emotional responses observed.

Keywords Virtual museums . Virtual reality . Virtual guides . Avatars . Social presence . Emotions . Storytelling . Persuasiveness

1 Introduction the technical developments in Virtual Reality (VR) and encom-

pass emerging concepts, such as virtual embodiment and sto-
Virtual museums (VMs) are digital spaces that can comple- rytelling by avatars in forms of Virtual Humans (VH) [24, 35].
ment, enhance, or augment museum information through per- A new wave of technological toolsets and possibilities in con-
sonalization, interactivity, user experience, and richness of con- junction with the ubiquity of VMs, stress the importance to
tent (ViMM Definition of a VM).1 ICTs have transformed the explore, examine, and assess the factors that may influence
way we consume museum information, tell stories, and expe- the quality of user experience in a VM environment [15].
rience cultural heritage [32, 33]. VM experiences build upon VH-related research investigates the dynamics of social
interaction between real and virtual humans [14]. VHs can
1 influence users’ behavior, responses, and even perception
ViMM (Virtual Multimodal Museums) Definition of a Virtual Museum, at
https://www.vi- mm.eu/2018/01/10/the-vimm-definition-of-a-virtual- thereby affecting the virtual experience: preliminary findings
museum/ of a recent study suggest, for example, that in some cases,
VHs can render participants more susceptible to obedience
* Stella Sylaiou and, by extension, prone to accept suggestions and conten-
sylaiou@gmail.com tions with reduced tendency for questioning their actual valid-
ity [6]. This is a somewhat alarming finding, which could be
Vlasios Kasapakis
v.kasapakis@aegean.gr
cause for concern in relation to virtual environments (VEs)
and users’ agency, in such virtual spaces. Nevertheless, it
Damianos Gavalas has its beneficial flipside: Avatars can make the stories pre-
dgavalas@aegean.gr
sented in VEs more credible and thus influence users in a
Elena Dzardanova positive and constructive manner due to the abovementioned
lena@aegean.gr
users’ suspension of disbelief; besides, this also applies to
1
Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University
cinematic experiences, or theater, which enable participants/
of the Aegean, Syros, Greece viewers to become immersed in meaningful experiences,
2
Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University
thereby raising cultural awareness. Moreover, as McCreery
of the Aegean, Mytilene, Greece et al. [20] posit, the digital embodiment of a real self within

an avatar, can heavily influence the sense of presence (i.e., the
sense of “being there”) functioning “as a bridge between phys-
ical and virtual environments” [7, 19, 34]. In their study, the
focus has been on users of commercial applications not direct-
ly related to cultural heritage. However, the implications for
VMs and pertinent VEs are important since users’ senses of
(dis)embodied self, presence and social presence form the
basis for meaningful engagements is such contexts.
Sensuous stimuli, cognition, and emotion are inextricably
related and, given the “idiosyncrasy” and special affective
attributes of virtual experiences and, concomitantly, users’
sense of (social) presence and socio-spatial interaction, the
dynamics of these elements of meaning-making and their in-
terrelation should be examined. This task is central in the
present study, which investigates user responses and the de-
gree of acceptance/ persuasiveness in relation to emotionally
charged narratives, communicated by diverse VHs, about a
virtually presented sculpture.
This paper studies the affective potential, persuasiveness,
and overall emotional impact of three virtual avatars with dif-
ferent professional and social characteristics: a curator, a mu-
seum guard, and a visitor, in an immersive VM environment.
The term persuasiveness here, relates to avatars’ capacity to
engage, affect, and stimulate emotional and cognitive re-
sponses. The sculpture of Arria and Pætus2 is the VM exhibit
upon which the experiment hinged. The dramatic story related
to it is narrated by three virtual avatars, two of which have
presumably significant difference from the participants in terms
of their roles and by one that has not; that is, the latter avatar is
designed to personify a casual, yet, well-informed visitor.
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows:
Section 2 explores the related work on (social) presence and
the interrelation between avatars and users in VEs delineating
contributing factors to persuasion and engagement. Section 3
presents the design of the experimental procedure and our
methodological framework. Section 4 presents the research
process as it unfolded and its findings, offering a preliminary
discussion in the form of explanatory remarks. Section 5 pro-
vides an in-depth discussion in the light of the study findings,
which relates them to pertinent theoretical discourses in order
to interpret the results in a meaningful and informed way.
Section 6 concludes this paper and suggests directions for
further research on the topic.
2 Related research
As this study focuses on the emotions caused by VHs to par-
ticipants, we review literature relevant to the issues of engage-
ment, presence social-spatial interactivity and agency, in order
to delineate the parameters affecting the dynamics, which
2
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/arria-and-paetus
Pers Ubiquit Comput
condition emotional and cognitive responses alike in Virtual
Cultural Heritage Environments.
Carrozzino et al. [4] explored a VM with three alternatives
of storytelling, including one featuring a VH guide, (namely,
traditional expository panels with text; narrating voice as in
audio guides; virtual human) and compared the research re-
sults in terms of engagement and understanding of the pro-
posed content. They argue that “findings confirm the hypoth-
esis that an embodied virtual agent is able to stimulate atten-
tion and involvement, and contributes to a better content de-
livery and learning” [4, 31, 36].
As Sylaiou et al. [31] explain VHs can humanize the inter-
face and communicational exchanges in VEs. Computer-
generated characters as virtual assistants [5, 9] have been the
subject of substantial research on their potential, optimal char-
acteristics and overall function. As Liew and Tan [17] put it
“they are capable of conveying verbal and nonverbal cues
through animated facial expression, body gestures, and text-
to-speech dialogues” thus humanizing and rendering emotion-
ally engaging and agreeable experience of the human-avatar
interface [3, 12, 22, 26].
Media equation theory is a prime example of a theoretical
approach, which posits that media interaction is essentially no
different to the interaction with a real person in psychological
terms [27]. This general communication theory posits that
people will interact in similar ways with an avatar, a VH, or
a real human as the script of inter-personal communication
cannot be spontaneously rewritten, when a digitized subject
is encountered.
According to Liew and Tan [17] “people will uncon-
sciously treat media technologies as social beings, such
that people’s behavioral and emotional responses to com-
puters would adhere to human-to-human social norms”
[11, 27]. Nevertheless, agency and its psychological under-
pinnings are not the same in VEs as preliminary findings of
Dzardanova et al. [6] show people with a predisposition to
be obedient will show an increase in this tendency, when in
a VE interacting with a VH. The disposition is not created
but enhanced; however, this is a clear indicator that the
psychic dynamics within the uncharted territory of the vir-
tual are different and the medium is not quite neutral. To
understand how emotional, social, and power dynamics are
affected in VEs is indeed a fundamental prerequisite for
designing fruitful and adequate experiences benefiting
both visitors and the cultural organizations involved.
As Wyman et al. [37] indicate “The museum’s approach to
storytelling has evolved. What was once primarily a voice of
authority speaking to the public through exhibition display
and publications has dramatically turned, in many places, into
a multi-faceted experience that invites conversation and inter-
action with visitors”. This brings to the fore yet another facet
of storytelling in VMs/VEs: the mode of address, the concom-
itant power dynamics involved and, last but not least, the quest
Pers Ubiquit Comput
for social interaction and reciprocity, which in turn raises the
issue of who has the legitimacy and agency to speak.
However, sense of presence in a virtual world is the basis of
agency and interaction in VEs. McCreery et al. [20] investi-
gate the sense of presence in VEs before discussing the im-
portance of social presence (defined as the sense of “being
with others”) [8]3 and the role of socio-spatial interaction in
VR settings. They identify a polyphony in definitions address-
ing the sense of presence: Presence has been characterized in a
variety of ways, from distinct ontologies, and from different
domains of human experience (i.e., personal, social, and phys-
ical) [16, 18, 30]. As a result, existing research suffers from
inconsistent, non-systematic, and ill-defined operational uses
of presence [16, 29, 38]. Lee [16] defined presence as “a
psychological state in which the virtuality of experience is
unnoticed”. Further, Lee [16] posits that presence may be
divided into three important domains based on the way
humans experience the world: physical, social, and self.
McCreery et al. [20] contend that social interaction in virtual
spaces enhances presence. Furthermore, McCreery et al. [21]
conclude that VEs need “to be designed and run in a manner
that fosters more intense interactions between users and socio-
spatial interactions between the users and the interface”.
Ibrahim et al. [10] provide a categorization of the areas, which
should be paid attention to during the designing of cultural
heritage VE. They codify them in four areas: Information
Design, Information Presentation, Navigation Mechanism,
and Environment Setting. They draw attention to the need
for meaningful, relevant, and stimulating information: “They
do not want to just see plain facts; instead, they want to un-
derstand how the information could be significant to them.
They wanted to know why the information about any partic-
ular item matters or is important for them to know”. In other
words, storytelling or narratives providing context need to
include hints as to why they matter. As Rizvic [28] explains
“storytelling, used for guiding the user through a VM, moti-
vates visitors to stay longer and see more exhibits” which is
deemed as an additional, measurable factor of virtual narra-
tives’ effectiveness. Affective responses by users to narratives,
as is the case with the present study, can be an indication of
relevance, importance, and effectiveness of the narratives
communicated by avatars.
This study addresses the degree of attention, engagement,
and affect that may be achieved by diverse types of avatars.
The issues and notions outlined above relate to this study on
several levels: Firstly, Carrozzino et al. [4] and Liew and Tan
[17] support the hypothesis that VHs can foster engagement
and humanize the experience of VMs thereby rendering it
more affective and effective. This study is based on the same
3 4
Heeter further elaborates on the term positing that “Social presence refers to
the extent to which other beings (living or synthetic) also exist in the world and
appear to react to you” (1992).
assumption and investigates the efficacy of different avatars.
Secondly, the participants’ sense of presence is the key for
engagement so the factors influencing it are presented above.
We address this through involving a large statistical sample of
participants, pre/post-experiment questionnaires, statistical
tests to examine the effect of various factors (gender, type of
avatars, etc.) on the perceived quality of experience, and cor-
relating the various dimensions of the quality of experience.
Ruth Aylett [2], a leading researcher in the field, as early as
1999, foregrounds “the need to examine how the narrative
experience might be extended to take advantage of the specific
characteristics of a VE”. She investigated affordances of in-
teractivity in VEs in relation to narratives as a factor that
would increase involvement of—otherwise passive—users.
As Rizvic [28] contends, “practice has shown that users prefer
to interact with digital content over being just passive ob-
servers/viewers”. As stated in the conclusions, this study pro-
vides the basis for further investigation on embedding inter-
activity in the virtual storytelling experience design.
3 Materials and methods
3.1 Apparatus and visual content
The experiment has been conducted in the premises of the
Laboratory of “Image, Sound and Cultural Representation”,
i n t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f C u l t u r a l Te c h n o l o g y a n d
Communication, University of Aegean, Greece. The hardware
used in this study included a VR - Ready PC with Νvidia
Geforce GTX 1060 graphics card 4 and an Oculus Rift
DK2.5 Oculus Rift supported participants’ head movement
tracking while also tracking their location via its infrared sen-
sor in a 3 × 2-m physical space in order to facilitate them in
exploring the VM. The experimental setup is presented in
detail in [13]. Participants remained in the VE for about
4 min: the initial 2 min were allocated for free exploration
and then, narration lasted for about 2 min.
To increase the level of realism, we have incorporated nat-
ural movement to the body of the VH avatars employing real,
motion capture–recorded actors using Vicon motion capture
system.6 This technique allowed us to record real actors’ mo-
tion and transfer it to the VH avatars, therefore increasing the
naturalness of their movement and the overall level of realism
in the VR environment. To further increase avatar realism, we
instructed actors to perform in a way matching the type of the
avatar. This allowed us to transfer appropriate body language
and narration voice characteristics to the virtual avatars.
Moreover, the statue used in the Virtual Environment was
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/geforce-gtx-1060/
5
https://www.oculus.com/rift/
6
https://www.vicon.com/

created using photogrammetry which further increases real-
ism. The avatars were created using Adobe Fuse 3D character
creator7 and were later imported in Adobe Mixamo8 to be
properly rigged and then be ready to receive the motion cap-
ture animation data.
For the case study, we have created a VM room, using
Cinema 4D,9 with one 3D exhibit, an artwork of the seven-
teenth century that depicts Arria et Pætus, exhibited in the
Louvre Museum.10 We scripted three variants of the same
scenario during the visit to the VM and implemented them
using Unity.11 In particular, three different high-detail human
avatars narrate the story of Arria et Pætus: a female curator of
the exhibition; a male museum security guard of the exhibi-
tion; a female visitor of the exhibition (see Fig. 1a). Avatars
behave in accordance with their status in order to engage the
virtual visitors. To increase the level of realism, we have in-
corporated natural movement to the body of the VH avatars
employing real, motion capture-recorded actors; lips sync12
compatible with the spoken text; eye blinking. 1 3
Additionally, the avatars make direct eye contact14 with the
participants and occasionally look at the statue depending on
the spoken text15 (see Fig. 1b).
3.2 Participants
Overall, 75 subjects (42 female) of diverse ages (20–52 years)
participated in our experimental trials. The ages do not follow
a normal distribution, as it results from the normality control
of Kolmogorov–Smirnov (sig. = 0.000). However, age is not
considered as a factor, which could influence the experiment.
The participants are mostly tertiary education graduates (49)
and postgraduates (24), while 2 are secondary education grad-
uates. The (participants’) education level is not perceived as
significantly varied. During the experiment, to each storyteller
corresponded 25 people, 11 men και 14 women. They have
been evenly distributed in order to achieve age and gender
balance.
7
https://www.adobe.com/gr_en/products/fuse.html
8
https://www.mixamo.com/
9
https://www.maxon.net/
10
The 3D exhibit has been downloaded from https://sketchfab.com/3d-
models/arria-et-ptus-louvre-museum-e5dc1871b7654429b883b9e04c8418c4
and was uploaded by Benjamin Bardou.
11
https://unity.com/
12
Lip synching was carried out using SALSA LipSynch (https://
crazyminnowstudio.com/) which performed real-time lip synching based on
automatically analyzing the sound file of the actors’ voices recorded while
narrating the story of Arria during the motion capture sessions.
13
The motion capture system used was on Vicon’s solutions (https://www.
vicon.com/) while the eye blinking was carried out using SALSA LipSynch
(https://crazyminnowstudio.com/).
14
That is, avatars looking at the direction of users as they were mostly static, at
a certain point, during narration.
15
A video of an indicative experimental session illustrating the viewing per-
spective of the immersed user can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=DAiUtIuoiXk
Pers Ubiquit Comput
3.3 Experimental procedure
Our experimental procedure involved three phases: briefing
about the experiment (users start with a plan of the tasks to
be accomplished); exploration (users freely explore the virtual
space and test their capabilities and the affordances of the VE);
assessment (users interpret the avatars’ stories and assess their
persuasiveness). The experiment has been conducted in a
comfortable museum room with one door and only one exhib-
it, the sculpture that depicts the story of Arria and Pætus,
artificially lighted. The room has been deliberately kept sim-
ple, without windows and other exhibits, to avoid complexity
that could distract the participants’ attention.
Firstly, each participant was invited to complete a demo-
graphics questionnaire with information about their age, gen-
der, education, knowledge about art, number of prior
immersive experiences, and frequency of visiting physical
museums. Then, they were briefly informed about the context
of the experiment (less than 1′).
Then, the participant could freely explore the VM room. The
narration opening was not sudden, since it started after the eye
contact of the immersed user with the avatar. When the user
approached the exhibit, an avatar introduced itself and started
narrating a story about the exhibit (duration of 1–2 min).
Specifically, the avatar narrated the dramatic story of Arria et
Pætus in ancient Rome (AD 42). Pætus, a Roman senator, was
condemned to death for his role in a revolt against Emperor
Claudius. A suicide would be a noble death; however, he was
afraid to commit it. His wife, Arria, visited her imprisoned
husband, stabbed herself first to encourage him and then passed
the dagger to her husband saying Pætus, non dolet! (Pætus, it
does not hurt!) (Arria and Pætus, Louvre Museum).16
On each experimental session, one of the three avatars as-
sumed the role of a guide and started his/her narration. The
avatar of the curator conveyed the story of the couple in a flat
way and she emphasized the historical information, formal anal-
ysis of the artwork, and the description of the sculpture’s features
using scientific terms. The avatar of the museum security guard
told the story of the couple using simple words underlining the
courage and the internal power of Arria. The avatar of the visitor
provided some personal information about the couple (e.g., the
fact that their son had died, while Pætus was in prison, but Arria
never told him the truth, in order not to worsen his sentimental
condition) highlighting the emotions, such as love, sadness, and
fear. Having completed the immersive experience, each partici-
pant filled in a second questionnaire to specify his/her impres-
sions about the story s/he has heard and more specifically, in
what degree s/he experienced the emotions of sadness, disap-
pointment, shame, anger, relief, and admiration, how convincing
the story was, and whether s/he considered that the storyteller
has had broad and/ or deep knowledge of the artwork.
16
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/arria-and-paetus
Pers Ubiquit Comput
Fig. 1 a Avatars used for curator,
guard, and visitor; b participant
perspective during the
experimental sessions featuring
the museum guard avatar
(a)
4 Methods
The presented study investigates the impact that the status of
three types of avatars (embodiments of a museum curator, a
museum security guard, and a museum visitor, respectively)
has on the persuasiveness of their storytelling and the emotions
(sadness, disappointment, shame, anger, relief, and admiration)
they evoke to virtual visitors. Specifically, our research explores
(a) differentiation of participants’ characteristics according to
gender and experience, (b) differentiation of each emotion for
each storyteller, and (c) correlation between the avatars and
emotions. The statistical package SPSS v.21 has been used
for the data analysis. The primary aim of the analysis has been
to study the influence/effect of each of the three avatars to the
six emotions under study (1) sadness, (2) disappointment, (3)
shame, (4) anger, (5) relief, and (6) admiration.
4.1 Research hypotheses
The first hypothesis is that there exists correlation between the
increased interest in culture (manifested in pertinent knowl-
edge and/or visits to museums), the tendency to lose spatial/
temporal awareness, and perceive emotional affect in ‘real’
environments and respective tendencies in VEs.
The second hypothesis is that the curator’s avatar, as an
expert figure, may yield higher degrees of emotional re-
sponses, acceptance, and persuasiveness.
5 Experimental results
5.1 Differentiation according to background
Firstly, we investigate the extent to which some of the person-
ality and behavior characteristics of potential VM environ-
ment users differ according to gender and the prior experience
in immersive environments or lack thereof. Using a question-
naire,17 we examined the following factors:
•Level of knowledge in history of art;
•Museum visits’ frequency;
17
zarcrash.x10.mx/Questionnaire_Avatars_as_Storytellers.pdf
(b)
•Loss of sense of space and space awareness in the physical
world;
•Loss of sense of time and time awareness in the physical
world;
•Degree of emotions’ development and emotional affect
responses.
The results of the non-parametric control test Mann-
Whitney have shown that women had superior level of knowl-
edge in history of art compared with their male peers, (U =
749.0, p = 0.000). Furthermore, they had greater experience in
VR environments (U = 1095.0, p = 0.046) and were more sen-
sitive in terms of being emotionally affected, e.g., by watching
a movie (U = 926.5, p = 0.003), as indicated by pertinent ques-
tionnaires, in which they rated their emotional responses.
Women also showed stronger emotional responses; therefore,
a correlation could be established between interest in culture
and affect generated by avatars’ narratives.
Likewise, with respect to past experiences in VEs, it ap-
pears that this factor influences significantly the sense of los-
ing space awareness (U = 902.5, p = 0.011). This may signify
that individuals, who tend to be absorbed by the experience to
the degree that they lose sense of space, probably seek to
partake in activities of VR. Therefore, the first hypothesis
has been confirmed.
5.2 Differentiation of each emotion per storyteller
One of the aims of this research was to study the influence of
each storyteller on each of the six emotions under
examination.
According to the design of the experiment, the factor
“Storytellers” is designated for the data, with three levels,
namely, “Curator,” “Guard,” “Visitor,” and the factor
“Emotions” with six levels: “Sadness,” “Disappointment,”
“Shame,” “Anger,” “Relief,” and “Admiration.” The organi-
zation of data is illustrated in Fig. 2.
Τhe method of repeated measures ANOVA has been ap-
plied aiming at examining possible differentiations to each of
the above emotions triggered depending on the storyteller.
Mauchly’s sphericity test was employed to check whether
the variations of differences amongst conditions were equal.
In case of sphericity breach, correction methods of F-ratios
were automatically employed. Here, Greenhouse–Geisser
 Pers Ubiquit Comput

Fig. 2 Factors considered in the experiment

correction was taken into consideration. The significance level
used for the tests was set to 5% (Table 1).
5.2.1 Differentiation amongst storytellers
The results of ANOVA, with corrected values F (Greenhouse–
Geisser), have shown that there is significant influence of the
storyteller type (F = 10.025, p = 0.000), of the emotion type
(F = 77.770, p = 0.000) and of the interaction of storyteller and
emotion, or, in other words, of the influence of storyteller on
emotional responses (F = 11.926, p = 0.000).
From Pairwise Comparisons with Bonferroni correction,
for the three storytellers, it seems that there is a statistically
significant differentiation between the curator and the guard
(p = 0.045), as well as between the curator and the visitor (p =
0.047). The results demonstrate that the curator receives a
considerably lower median/mean score in emotions compared
to the other two storytellers.
The correlations between emotions, irrespective of the
“Storyteller” factor, are shown in Fig. 3.
5.2.2 Effect of storytellers on emotions
Figure 4 depicts emotional responses according to storyteller.
It becomes evident that the curator receives the lowest score
Table 1 Descriptive statistics
Avatar
Emotions Curator Guard Visitor
in almost all types of emotions. The guard is in between (apart
from anger and shame), while the visitor has the strongest
affective potential.
In order to interpret this discrepancy between the three
storytellers, the question “what impressed you most in the
story you heard” has been addressed to the participants. It
was observed that in the description of the guard words
such as “drama,” “sacrifice,” “suicide” were mentioned/
used, while during the narration of the visitor, emphasis
on the dramatic element was given, but some participants
stated that they were attracted by graphics and design.
This means that the curator’s character was perceived as
indifferent, the guard rather dramatic, and the visitor quite
appealing and more natural.
5.3 Differentiation of each emotion per storyteller
according to gender
Subsequently, we investigate the extent to which the gender
factor affected participants, that is, whether the feelings
evoked to participants, differ significantly between men and
women. For this purpose, we employed the ANOVA Mixed
Design that involves repeated measures ANOVA and inde-
pendent designs.
Since we aim at examining potential differences due to
gender differentiation, during the original configuration of
the dataset, 11 men and 14 women were involved for each
avatar.

Mean sd Mean sd Mean sd

5.3.1 Interaction of gender and storyteller
Sadness 1.971 0.923 3.543 1.804 4.743 1.521
Disappointment 2.029 0.985 3.286 1.919 3.914 1.541 Storytellers appeared to have limited divergences in emo-
Shame 2.057 0.837 2.314 1.605 2.114 1.183
tional impact on users as a whole. Nevertheless, post hoc
Anger 1.829 0.822 2.857 1.683 2.629 1.555
control showed a significant differentiation between men
Relief 2.371 1.308 1.971 1.098 2.343 0.938
and women with regard to the curator and visitor narra-
tives (F = 4.631, p = 0.039); men have been affected by
Admiration 3.943 0.968 3.857 1.927 4.743 1.540
the curator much more than women whereas the contrary
Mean 2.446 2.971 3.414
holds for the visitor (Fig. 5).
Pers Ubiquit Comput
Fig. 3 Correlations between
emotions
5.3.2 Interaction of gender and emotion
A statistically significant difference occurred between men
and women in overall emotion. That is, irrespective of avatars
involved, there are significant divergencies in emotions (with
the exception of admiration). Figure 6 depicts the average
values of each emotion per gender.
5.3.3 Interaction of gender, storyteller, and emotion
Figure 7 depicts participants’ emotions in relation to story-
tellers (avatars) and gender. The curator and guard avatars
had similar emotional impact on both genders (with the ex-
ception of relief and admiration that scored higher amongst
men, respectively). The visitor avatar nevertheless generates
much stronger feelings of sadness, disappointment, anger, and
admiration to women, while conversely, shame and relief
scored higher amongst men.
5.4 Post-experiment correlation tests
A series of correlation tests aimed at investigating the experi-
ences of the participants in the VM. In particular, the follow-
ing factors have been examined: possible correlations between
Fig. 4 Fluctuations in each emotion according to storyteller
satisfaction from the overall experience, sense of resemblance
to a real museum, sense of naturalness of the avatar control
mechanism, participant’s perceived sense of presence in the
VM, and loss of space and time awareness.
The results of non-parametric correlation tests, with the use
of computer, of Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient are
summarized in Table 2.
Thus, the closer the simulation is to reality, the more natural
the mechanisms appear and the higher the sense of presence in
the virtual space perceived by the participant. Both the suc-
cessful simulation and the high sense of presence in the VE
improve the overall quality of experience (i.e., increase the
degree of satisfaction for the participant).
A second point to examine is potential correlations of the
loss of sense of space and time with the degree of simulation
success and the sense of presence perceived by the participant.
From the same table, we ascertain that the higher the sense of
presence in the virtual space, the less the sense of space loss
(ρ = − 0.206, p = 0.029) and the time (ρ = − 0.325, p = 0.001).
Moreover, the more the VE resembles the real one, the
more the users’ time awareness. Finally, the more they deal
with the control of the virtual character, the more they lose
sense of space (ρ = − 0.214, p = 0.029) and time (ρ = − 0.241,
p = 0.013). It is noted that space awareness refers to the real,
not the VE. The time is identical in the real and the VE
(Participants supposed that the question referred to loss space
4.000
3.500
3.000
Mean rang
2.500
2.000
Male
1.500
Female
1.000
0.500
0.000
Curator Guard Visitor
Avatar
Fig. 5 Interaction of gender and storyteller

Fig. 6 Emotions according to
gender
and time in the real world; otherwise, there is no logical inter-
pretation, but the time in the virtual and real environment
coincides).
5.5 Differentiation control of users’ degree
of annoyance caused by the avatar
A reasonable question resulting from the experiment is
whether the type of avatar affects the degree of annoy-
ance it triggers to the VM visitors. For this purpose, we
employed the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis Η test,
which confirmed a statistically significant differentiation
(p = 0.000).
The mean ranks of the test showed that the guard is the
avatar that caused a higher degree of annoyance. The least
disturbance has been reported by the users who interacted
with the visitor. This finding shows that the curator has
been found the most neutral (or indifferent) character. The
guard was perceived as a storyteller who tried preten-
tiously to cause intense feelings (in fact evoked primarily
negative feelings of shame and anger). Nevertheless, his
way of doing so also provokes the discomfort of the par-
ticipant. On the other hand, the visitor creates the most
intense feelings with respect to sadness, disappointment,
and admiration, as her narration is rather dramatic while
also natural enough to make her presence the least
annoying.
5.6 Differentiation tests before and
after the experiment
In this section, it is considered whether the sense of
space and time loss after the end of the experiment is
due to the experimental session or it relates with per-
sonality attribute of the person. Thus, we compared the
answers received to questions related with the self-
evaluation of the participants (on what extent they lose
the sense of space and time in real life), with the
Pers Ubiquit Comput
questions expressly referring to losing the sense of
space/time during the experiment.
Specifically,
Pre-experiment phase Post-experiment phase
Space I often feel absorbed on There were times that I lost the
something so much that I sense of space during my
lose the sense of space, visit to the virtual museum.
having of sense of where I
am.
Time I often feel absorbed on There were times that I lost the
something so much that I sense of time during my visit
lose the sense of time. to the virtual museum.
The differences between the pre- and post-experiment var-
iables do not follow a normal distribution, so the non-
parametric control for paired samples Wilcoxon was per-
formed, which yielded statistically significant variations in
the sense of space (Z = − 5.054b, p = 0.000) and time (Z = −
2.372c, p = 0.018) alike. This means that the effect of the
experiment was significant. At the end of the experiment,
there is a much greater sense of loss of time than in real life,
which could be attributed to the successful implementation of
the simulation. Conversely, the experiment not only does not
cause a sense of time loss, but the users maintain awareness of
each moment in relation to their previous experiences.
The comparison between the two genders reveals that
women have been much more affected by the experience than
men, as they reported that felt absorbed to the degree where
they lost the sense of space (U = 649.0, p = 0.000) and time
(U = 805.5, p = 0.000) (see Table 3).
This difference results from the influence of the VE and not
from the difference in the temperament or the predisposition
of the two genders since, based on their statements prior to the
experiment, there was no statistically significant difference
between genders with respect to sense of loss of space (U =
Pers Ubiquit Comput

Fig. 7 Avatars by emotions interaction for men and women, respectively

1173.5, p = 0.223) and time (U = 1158.5, p = 0.197) in the
physical world.
6 Discussion
This study investigates the dynamics of users’ interaction with
the avatars of a curator, a museum security guard, and a
visitor who narrate a compelling story in diverging registers
and style. Our objective has been to map out the effect of the
respective virtual experiences and thereby draw conclusions
on how to optimize the employment of VHs in Cultural
Heritage-related VEs.
At his point, it is deemed helpful to draw extensively on
Sylaiou et al. [31] as this study provides the theoretical frame-
work for the very same experimental setting, albeit in a small-
er scale (pilot study). Excerpts of the literature review under-
pinning the pilot study are included here, enriching the theo-
retical discussion, which nevertheless extends well beyond
that initial framework, due to new issues arising and insights
gained in the process. Thus, referencing of prior research un-
derpins the theoretical basis for the present, final, and compre-
hensive study. The experimental findings suggest that the
emotional responses caused by the avatars diverge significant-
ly with respect to the magnitude of their overall impact. The
curator yielded the lowest scores in emotional affective po-
tential (irrespective of positive/negative feelings); the guard/
museum warden is in the middle of the three; the visitor avatar,
who impersonates an informed laywoman, manages to stir the
strongest emotions. According to a recent study, avatars of
professionals have more impact when their appearance ad-
heres to their role [25]. This could be an indication that pro-
fessionals’ expertise, especially when appearance foregrounds
their status, is more persuasive. Parmar et al. [25] tested the
effect of (in)congruence between avatars’ looks and roles:
physicians who were dressed casually were less accepted de-
spite being “closer to the participants” in terms of image by
being presented effectively like them. This does not imply,
though, that social distance is welcomed as such, but that
appearances matter when authoritative status of experts is

Table 2 Correlations of satisfaction after the experience

Spearman’s rho Satisfaction Similarity with Naturalness of Sense of Loss of sense of space/ Loss of sense of time/
from the the real avatar control presence in space awareness in the time awareness in the
experience museum mechanism the VE VE VE

Satisfaction from the 0.747** 0.136 (p = 0.165) 0.358** 0.200** (p = 0.041) 0.162 (p = 0.105
experience (p = 0.000) (p = 0.000)
Similarity with the real 0.437** (p = 0.000) 0.311** 0.129 (p = 0.191) − 0.241** (p = 0.013)
museum (p = 0.001)
Naturalness of avatar 0.516** − 0.241** (p = 0.029) − 0.241** (p = 0.013)
control mechanism (p = 0.001)
Sense of presence in the − 0.206** (p = 0.029) − 0.325** (p = 0.001)
VE
Loss of sense of 0.922** (p = 0.000)
space/space aware-
ness in the VE

**Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)


Table 3 Effect of the experiment on loss of sense of space-time for both genders
Space lost pre-experiment Space lost post-experiment
Mean Mann-Whitney U p Mean Mann-Whitney U p
Male 1.96 1173.5 0.223 2.00 649.0
Female 2.00 3.57
involved. Parmar et al. [25] study avatars of medical staff in a
scenario context in which accuracy of information is para-
mount, while trustworthiness and expertise are crucial, in con-
tradistinction to a VM setting where VHs convey affective
stories. This could reduce the significance attributed to ap-
pearances in this study. However, given the fact that avatars
here assume different roles altogether (not simply other cloth-
ing), thus bolstering discrepancy from users’ expectations,
while professionalism (with concomitant visual signifiers)
and by extension profession itself, are factors that affect cred-
ibility, the research Parmar et al. is indeed relevant.
Given that, the guard and the visitor avatars are almost
identically dressed in terms of status signifiers; this could have
eroded the former’s trustworthiness. The curator’s avatar
might also be perceived as casually dressed. However, this is
deemed secondary, if not negligible, given the lack of a fixed
stereotype especially relating to a curator’s appearance (e.g.,
in contradistinction to physicians). In a nutshell, the curator’s
and the guard’s appearance could have slightly stymied their
acceptance. Nevertheless, this does not explain why the non-
expert visitor scored the higher values in terms of impact, with
a highly plausible explanation (at least in terms of contributing
factor) being the Expectancy Violations Theory [1] outlined
below. The visitor, being a more natural and unpretentious
figure, not only chimes with the role of the participants (there-
fore, unconsciously functioning and perceived as role model
or projected ideal self, within the microcosm of the experi-
mental setup context), but according to Expectancy Violations
Theory, amplifies positive responses by effectively embody-
ing a positive surprise, subverting expectations in an enjoy-
able and inspiring way.
The Expectancy Violations Theory [1] posits that when the
expectations form an agent with specific social characteristics,
such as assumed expertise, are not met (e.g., when an expert
provides unconvincing information or even appears visually
incongruent with her status or role), then strong negative emo-
tions are elicited and distrust ensues as result. According to the
same theory (ibid), when expectations are exceeded as it is the
case when a non-specialist provides accounts showing surpris-
ingly high expertise that is beyond their, e.g., professional
background, then an exceedingly positive response in terms
of liking, credibility, and trust might be generated at the hu-
man actors’ level. Therefore, this factor can influence the re-
sponse towards the only non-specialist avatar who
Pers Ubiquit Comput
Time lost pre-experiment Time lost post-experiment
Mean Mann-Whitney U p Mean Mann-Whitney U p
0.000 3.00 1158.5 0.197 1.89 805.5 0.000
3.15 3.25
nevertheless provides a narration essentially of the same
information-value compared the more expert VHs.
Embodied virtual agents’ role affects the very way they are
perceived: peoples’ perception tends to ignore elements that
are incongruent or diverging from their perceived profile. In
other words, people tend to filter out whatever contradicts
their expectations from embodied virtual agents, to the extent
of “ignoring information that is/are seemingly dissonant with
the stereotype” [17]. Differences in register, tone and vocab-
ulary used by the three avatars in this experiment that were
expected to make their roles more persuasive as such, will be
thus further altered upon perception to match the stereotypes
of their assumed roles/identities.
This fact has its importance as it conveys the elasticity of
perception, which adapts and edits input to match expecta-
tions. If anything, this is a testament to the significance of
how the design of VHs should take into account the expecta-
tions attached to the avatars’ social characteristics. Despite the
fact that in this study, this automatic amplification and rejec-
tion of input does not seemingly affect the findings, as avatars
tend to cling to their roles, upon closer examination a different
picture emerges: avatars like the curator and guard who are
expected to be impassionate and factual are involved in dra-
matic and charged recounting which could well be felt as a
contradiction, if not an unconvincing effort to insinuate
“themselves.” Their emotional impact was low in all proba-
bility partly due to the phenomenon of selective and uncon-
scious filtering-out of their emotionally charged forays into
the participants’ intellect. To the contrary, the visitor who
could well be victim of the same process as a laywoman with
a proclivity to usurp the role of the erudite achieves the highest
scores in users’ acceptance. This seeming contradiction is re-
solved by the fact that visitor as such does not have a profes-
sional role to contradict; therefore as a non-expert, she man-
ages to avoid the pitfalls of alienation generated by being
perceived as not living up to her role.
The differentiation in participants’ responses according to
gender is far from negligible and gender appears to be an
important factor when evaluating the degree of effectiveness
of the VR experience [23]. Firstly, findings indicate that wom-
en tended to show more intense emotions. Their emotional
responses to the visitor (a female VH) were particularly more
prevalent especially in feelings related to empathy, such as
sadness. Interestingly, women scored lower values in the
Pers Ubiquit Comput
emotions that could be seen as self-referential and less empa-
thetic, namely, shame (seen as effect on the self-image) and
relief (as an emotional result which may relate to but is not
necessarily mirroring the emotional state of the “other,” as is
the case with “despair”). In a nutshell, participating women
showed more empathy and related strongly to a more humane
and natural storyteller. Men unsurprisingly show similar to
women levels of admiration (an emotion that is neither clearly
an indication of empathy, nor an effect on the self, such as
shame) but, interestingly enough, feel admiration to a lesser
extent when addressed by the visitor in contradistinction to
women. This could be a side effect of the tendency of men
to align themselves to a greater extend with figures of author-
ity and power. Whether the prevalent emotional alignment of
female users with the visitor is fostered by the avatar’s gender
is open to interpretation, but enhances the hypothesis of iden-
tification as fulcrum for increased engagement.
Lastly, the visitor diffused and alleviated emotions of anger
and shame in comparison with the guard avatar—the two
feelings where the former scored lower than the latter. This
brings us to the case of the guard as a VH in between the two
extremes of the visitor as a prodigious member of the public
and the curator as the uninspiring talking head as it were the
guard occupies a middle ground between the dull authoritative
and the refreshing novice as a person with a distinct profes-
sional role which, nevertheless, is manifestly exceeded as the
warden undertakes the role of a knowledgeable expert. In this
sense, the guard is a surprise, nevertheless a dimmed one
given his professional relevance with the museum context.
These factors may explain his in between effectiveness.
7 Conclusions and future research plans
This paper presents the initial results of the experiment
concerning the persuasiveness of various types of virtual
guides in a VM environment. These high-detail human avatars
(a female museum curator, a male museum security guard and
a female visitor of the exhibition) narrate in different ways
(using scientific terms, underlining the courage, and highlight-
ing the emotions, respectively) the dramatic story of the sculp-
ture that depicts Arria et Pætus. We have tested the emotions
of sadness/worry, distress, shame, anger, relief, and admira-
tion participants have felt in each case, which provided in-
sights in respect to how convincing every storyteller-avatar
was and, more importantly, what specific effect every VH
seemed to have in terms of persuasion and emotional
engagement.
As Expectancy Violations Theory posits, virtual figures
“with expertise” elicit negative responses or fail to have full
impact in terms of engagement when they disillusion in rela-
tion to the expectations attached to their status. As this study
suggests, roles should be observed and adhered to, albeit
avatars devoid of explicit professional status could not only
function just as well, but all the more could be offering the
optimal solution as they lend themselves for easier identifica-
tion with emotional empathy and even a pleasurable “natural”
and approachable VH to interact with. Especially if the avatar
happens to personify an astute and informed visitor, partici-
pant may even subconsciously look up to as an imaginary
ideal self when users themselves undertake the role of a
(virtual) museum visitor. With these thoughts in mind, a clear
suggestion for designers to look into the merits of using virtual
visitors or non-specialists as avatars introducing and
explaining artifacts in VMs is made here.
A further study correlating gender of avatars and their roles
could be fruitful as in this instance; gender was taken into
account in relation to participants only. That would, for exam-
ple, shed light as to whether a male curator avatar would elicit
same feelings and whether these emotions would diverge de-
pending on users’ gender. In other words, there is scope in
testing the impact of the avatars’ gender on users’ emotional
responses and moreover, do so, in correlation to the partici-
pants’ gender in a future study.
Moreover, a varied sample of users spanning from casual
visitors of actual museums to information seekers and even
experts with a keen investment in cultural heritage could pro-
vide insights in how differing expectations from a (virtual)
museum visit affect responses. Another factor that conditions
the efficacy of digital storytelling as such is the degree of emo-
tional charge involved, issues of register and content, and last
but not least congruence of storytellers with their narrative
styles. As shown, aligning of virtual personas with pertinent
or effective styling choices is a delicate process. Things can
backfire or inspiring surprises may arise depending on de-
signers understanding and sensibility vis-à-vis the intricate in-
terrelations of avatars virtual roles, appearance, and perfor-
mance, in tandem with the users’ characteristics, motives, and
needs. Therefore, this study underlines the importance of
aligning and fine-tuning narrative styles and contents to avatars,
which should correspond in terms of appearance to their roles,
but nevertheless, designers should not shy away from assigning
roles typically reserved for experts, to non-experts such as the
visitor VH in this study, as the findings indicate that this could
enhance engagement and involvement.
Our study highlights several opportunities for further in-
vestigation. Firstly, a comparison amongst real to virtual nar-
rators would be an aspect interesting to examine. The involve-
ment of a control group guided by real guides could shed light
on the “real vs virtual” issue. Another factor worthwhile to
investigate would be the duration of the virtual guided tour
(our experiments only involved a “flat” 4-min duration) to
gain insights on the fluctuation of engagement and fatigue
over time.
Our future research plans also include the investigation of
participants’ emotional responses in the presence of other

immersed users [13], as well as partaking virtual visitors—as
non-player characters. This would presumably enhance the de-
gree of social presence, and interaction providing more depth to
the research foregrounded in this paper. Last, drawing inspira-
tion from Aylett’s [2] research on how VE narratives move
beyond consumption of predetermined content, thus acknowl-
edging the viewer’s specificity, avatars could be selected by
users (or automatically assigned to users by a recommendation
system) to ensure compatibility with their profile.
Funding information This research is co-financed by the Greece and the
European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational
Programme “Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong
Learning 2014-2020” in the context of the project “Social Interaction in
Virtual Reality Environments” (MIS 5004223).
References
1. Afifi WA, Burgoon JK (2000) The impact of violations on uncer-
tainty and the consequences for attractiveness. Hum Commun Res
26(2):203–233
2. Aylett R (1999) Narrative in virtual environments - towards emer-
gent narrative. In: Papers from the 1999 AAAI Fall Symposium,
Technical report FS-99-01. AAAAI Press, Menlo Park, pp 83–86
3. Beldad A, Hegner S, Hoppen J (2016) The effect of virtual sales
agent (VSA) gender–product gender congruence on product advice
credibility, trust in VSA and online vendor, and purchase intention.
Comput Hum Behav 60:62–72
4. Carrozzino M, Colombo M, Tecchia F, Evangelista C, Bergamasco
M (2018) Comparing different storytelling approaches for virtual
guides in digital immersive museums. In: Proceedings of the fifth
International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality
and Computer Graphics, pp 292–302
5. Dzardanova E, Kasapakis V, Gavalas D (2018) On the effect of
social context in virtual reality: an examination of the determinants
of human behavior in shared immersive virtual environments. IEEE
Consumer Electronics Magazine 7(4):44–52
6. Dzardanova E, Kasapakis V, Gavalas D, Sylaiou S (2019)
Exploring aspects of obedience in VR-mediated communication.
In: Proceedings of the 2019 11th International Conference on
Quality of Multimedia Experience, pp 1–3
7. Gee JP (2003) What video games have to teach us about learning
and literacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
8. Heeter C (1992) Being there: the subjective experience of presence.
Presence 1(2):262–271
9. Holzwarth M, Janiszewski C, Neumann MM (2006) The influence
of avatars on online consumer shopping behavior. J Mark 70(4):19–
36
10. Ibrahim N, Mohamad Ali N, Mohd Yatim NF (2015) Factors facil-
itating cultural learning in virtual architectural heritage environ-
ments. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 8(2):1–20
11. Isbister K, Nass C (2000) Consistency of personality in interactive
characters: verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and user characteristics.
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 53(2):251–267
12. Jin SAA, Bolebruch J (2009) Avatar-based advertising in Second
Life: the role of presence and attractiveness of virtual spokesper-
sons. J Interact Advert 10(1):51–60
13. Kasapakis V, Dzardanova E, Gavalas D, Sylaiou S (2018) Remote
synchronous interaction in mixed reality gaming worlds.
Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Immersive
Mixed and Virtual Environment Systems, 13-15.
Pers Ubiquit Comput
14. Kim K, Maloney D, Bruder G, Bailenson JN, Welch GF (2017) The
effects of virtual human’s spatial and behavioral coherence with
physical objects on social presence in AR. Computer Animation
and Virtual Worlds 28(3–4):e1771
15. Koutsabasis P (2017) Empirical evaluations of interactive systems
in cultural heritage: a review. International Journal of
Computational Methods in Heritage Science 1(1):100–122
16. Lee KM (2004) Presence, explicated. Communication Theory
14(1):27–50
17. Liew TW, Tan SM (2018) Exploring the effects of specialist versus
generalist embodied virtual agents in a multi-product category on-
line store. Telematics Inform 35(1):122–135
18. Mantovani G, Riva G (1999) “Real” presence: how different ontol-
ogies generate different criteria for presence, telepresence, and vir-
tual presence. Presence 8(5):540–550
19. McCreery MP, Krach SK, Schrader PG, Boone R (2012) Defining
the virtual self: personality, behavior and the psychology of em-
bodiment. Comput Hum Behav 28:976–983
20. McCreery MP, Schrader PG, Krach SK, Boone R (2013) A sense of
self: the role of presence in virtual environments. Comput Hum
Behav 29(4):1635–1640
21. McCreery MP, Vallett DB, Clark C (2015) Social interaction in a
virtual environment: examining socio-spatial interactivity and so-
cial presence using behavioral analytics. Comput Hum Behav 51:
203–206
22. McGoldrick PJ, Keeling KA, Beatty SF (2008) A typology of roles
for avatars in online retailing. J Mark Manag 24(3–4):433–461
23. Paliokas I, Kekkeris G, Georgiadou K (2008) Study of users’ be-
haviour in virtual reality environments. Int J Technol Knowledge
Soc 4(1):121–132
24. Papagiannakis G et al (2018) Mixed reality gamified presence and
storytelling for virtual museums. In: Encyclopedia of Computer
Graphics and Games. Springer, pp 1–13
25. Parmar D, Olafsson S, Utami D, Bickmore T (2018) Looking the
part: the effect of attire and setting on perceptions of a virtual health
counselor. Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on
Intelligent Virtual Agents, 301–306
26. Qiu L, Benbasat I (2009) Evaluating anthropomorphic product rec-
ommendation agents: a social relationship perspective to designing
information systems. J Manag Inf Syst 25(4):145–182
27. Reeves B, Nass CI (1996) The media equation: how people treat
computers, television, and new media like real people and places.
Chicago, IL, US: Center for the Study of Language and
Information; New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press
28. Rizvic S (2014) Story guided virtual cultural heritage applications.
Journal of Interactive Humanities 2(1):Article 2
29. Sheridan TB (1992) Musings on telepresence and virtual presence.
Presence Teleop Virt 1:120–126
30. Sheridan TB (1999) Decartes, Heidegger, Gibson, and God: toward
an eclectic ontology of presence. Presence 8(5):551–559
31. Sylaiou S, Kasapakis V, Dzardanova E, Gavalas D (2019)
Assessment of virtual guides’ credibility in virtual museum envi-
ronments, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on
Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Computer Graphics,
230–238.
32. Sylaiou S, Kasapakis V, Gavalas D, Dzardanova E (2018)
Leveraging mixed reality technologies to enhance museum visitor
experiences, Proceedings of the 9th IEEE International Conference
on Intelligent Systems, 595–601.
33. Sylaiou S, Liarokapis F, Kotsakis K, Patias P (2009) Virtual mu-
seums, a survey and some issues for consideration. J Cult Herit
10(4):520–528
34. Turkle S (1997) Multiple subjectivity and virtual community at the
end of the Freudian century. Sociol Inq 67(1):72–84
Pers Ubiquit Comput

35. Vosinakis S (2017) Digital characters in cultural heritage applica-
tions. International Journal of Computational Methods in Heritage
Science 1(2):1–20
36. Vosinakis S, Koutsabasis P, Zaharias P (2011) An exploratory study
of problem-based learning in virtual worlds. Proceedings of the 3rd
International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious
Applications, 112–119
37. Wyman B, Smith S, Meyers D, Godfrey M (2011) Digital storytell-
ing in museums: observations and best practices. Curator: The
Museum Journal 54(4):461–468
38. Zahorik P, Jenison RL (1998) Presence as being in-the-world.
Presence 7(1):78–89
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdic-
tional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

View publication stats