Immersive Techniques and Virtual Reality

Abstract Although sensory and consumer research has traditionally been conducted in laboratory settings, where the influence of context is examined by collecting consumer responses in controlled environments, attempts have been made to increase the ecological validity of such studies. This chapter presents various immersive approaches for re-creating context in laboratory settings: environments with physical elements, environments projected on a screen, and environments involving three-dimensional immersive virtual reality (iVR). The authors describe an experiment in which they investigated emotions elicited by scents in an iVR environment. These scents were perceived differently in different iVR environments by both verbalization and psychophysiology measures. The levels of immersion, possible bias, and validity of such approaches are considered in terms of predicting consumer behavior and preference. The digital revolution has changed the way consumers behave. The sensory and consumer science field needs to think differently and adapt its approaches to this digital revolution.