Support data for “Effect of height perception on state self-esteem and cognitive performance in virtual reality”

The uploaded data contains research data supporting “Effect of height perception on state self-esteem and cognitive performance in virtual reality”. We used the letter recall task established on Goldin-Meadow et al.’s cognitive test to measure participants’ working memory capacity. In each trial, we presented four distinctive letter pairs to facilitate the memorization and recollection process. In accordance with prior work, it was found that relative to letter sequence consisting of both vowels and consonants, those formed solely by consonants can yield a more optimum level of difficulty for testing. Hence, each trial of the letter recall tasks adopted in this study was developed based on eighty randomized consonant letters. In the initial phase of each trial, participants were asked to memorize the visually presented letter sequence within a 15 s exposure period. Subsequent to stimuli exposure, participants experienced a 25 s retention interval. In this phase, the mental rotation task was conducted without the presence of any visual prompt with respect to the letter pairs. This was immediately followed by a 10 s recollection period in order to facilitate serial recall and verbal report of the memorized letter pairs. Participants’ responses were recorded and scored by the experimenter, and reported as percentage correct in later analysis. Each correct letter pair was awarded with one mark, thus a maximum of forty marks could be attained in each block. No marks were given for letter pairs with noted transposition errors and incorrect combination of letters. We used mental rotation task to examine participants’ spatial ability. Spatial tasks based on the Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test were formulated using 3D figures in the Library of Shepard and Metzler-type Mental Rotation Stimuli. In this task, participants were first shown five figures in a 15 s exposure period. All stimuli were in rotation around the horizontal axis and presented in an identical white frame against a white background. A reference stimulus was positioned on top of four potential matching blocks, which were positioned in various orientations and labelled as option “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” respectively. Participants were asked to orient mental representations of the stimuli for dynamic comparisons, then verbally report two figures that shared the same configuration with the reference stimuli in the subsequent 10 s response period. Participants’ responses, represented by two different alphabets, were recorded and scored by the experimenter, and reported as percentage correct in later analysis. One score was awarded for each correct response, which can accumulate to a maximum of twenty marks per condition. In addition to being a stand-alone assessment of visuospatial ability, the mental rotation task also serves the purpose of inducing cognitive load in the letter recall process. We used the State Self-Esteem Scale, a well-validated and psychometrically sound measurement, to measure momentary fluctuations of individual self-esteem subsequent to height manipulation. It comprises twenty self-report items, each rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Not at all, 2 = A little bit, 3 = Somewhat, 4 = Very much, and 5 = Extremely). Three subscales were used to conduct multidimensional assessment in the specific facets of appearance, performance, and social self-esteem. In the current study, participants were asked to rate the SSES for how they perceive themselves in relation to their experience in the virtual environment. Following a within-group experimental design, paired-sample t-test analyses were carried out using jamovi (version 1.2.27). Outcome variables were compared between the normal and increased height conditions. The order of conditions was counter-balanced in order to minimize potential confounding influence of the sequence, for instance, cognitive fatigue and learning effects. We checked for normality using Shapiro-Wilk test.

本上传数据集包含支撑《虚拟现实中高度感知对状态自尊与认知表现的影响》研究的相关实验数据。本研究采用基于戈尔丁-米多（Goldin-Meadow）等人认知测验开发的字母回忆任务（letter recall task），以测量被试的工作记忆容量。每一轮实验中，我们呈现四组独特的字母对，以辅助被试的记忆与回忆流程。参照既往研究，相较于同时包含元音与辅音的字母序列，仅由辅音组成的字母序列可提供更为适宜的测验难度水平。因此，本研究采用的字母回忆任务每一轮均基于80个随机生成的辅音字母构建。每轮实验的初始阶段，要求被试在15秒的刺激呈现时长内记住视觉展示的字母序列。刺激呈现结束后，被试需经历25秒的保持间隔期。在此阶段，被试将完成心理旋转任务（mental rotation task），期间无任何针对字母对的视觉提示。紧接着进入10秒的回忆阶段，以辅助被试对记忆中的字母对进行序列回忆与口头报告。实验人员将记录并评分被试的作答结果，后续分析中将以正确率的形式报告得分。每答对一组字母对可获得1分，因此每个实验单元的最高得分为40分；若出现字母顺序调换错误或字母组合错误的作答，则不得分。本研究采用心理旋转任务以考察被试的空间能力。基于范登堡与库塞心理旋转测验（Vandenberg and Kuse Mental Rotation Test）的空间任务，采用谢泼德与梅茨勒型心理旋转刺激库（Shepard and Metzler-type Mental Rotation Stimuli）中的3D图形构建。该任务中，被试首先会在15秒的呈现时长内看到5个图形。所有刺激物均围绕水平轴旋转，并在白色背景下以统一的白色边框展示。一个参照刺激物置于四个待匹配图形的上方，这四个图形以不同朝向摆放，并分别标记为选项"A"、"B"、"C"、"D"。要求被试在头脑中对刺激物的心理表征进行旋转以完成动态比较，并在随后的10秒作答期内口头报告出与参照刺激物构型一致的两个图形。实验人员将记录被试以两个不同字母作答的结果并进行评分，后续分析中将以正确率的形式报告得分。每答对一次可获得1分，每种实验条件下的最高得分为20分。心理旋转任务除可独立评估视空间能力外，还可在字母回忆流程中诱发认知负荷。本研究采用状态自尊量表（State Self-Esteem Scale, SSES）——一种经过充分验证且心理测量学性能良好的测评工具——以测量被试在身高操纵后的即时自尊波动情况。该量表包含20个自陈条目，均采用5点李克特量表评分（1=完全没有，2=有一点，3=有些，4=非常，5=极其）。量表包含三个子维度，分别从外貌、表现以及社交自尊三个特定层面进行多维度评估。本研究中，要求被试根据自身在虚拟环境中的体验对状态自尊量表进行评分。本研究采用被试内实验设计，使用jamovi（版本1.2.27）进行配对样本t检验分析。对正常身高与升高身高两种实验条件下的因变量进行比较。为最小化实验顺序带来的潜在混淆影响（如认知疲劳与学习效应），实验条件的呈现顺序采用了平衡设计。本研究采用夏皮罗-威尔克检验（Shapiro-Wilk test）进行正态性检验。