Virtual Reality and Cognitive Processes

The relationship between our actions and their perceivable results is ruled by what we call the laws of nature. It is general understanding that our actions act upon real objects which react according to the laws of nature what then can be perceived. Virtual Reality Facilities (VRFs) simulate the action-perception relationship in a physically correct manner but whithout involving real objects or real events. Just the same do mathematical models of nature (physical theories). So it stands to reason that VRFs can be considered as analog models of nature. If a physical theory is false its predictions cannot be verified. If a VRF were false we would have strange and unusual perceptions as if different laws of nature would be valid. It is suggesting to say that we would fail to survive in nature when using a false mathematical as well as a false analog model. However, from the most elementary false VRF, Kohler’s (1969) prismatic spectacles showing the entire world upside down, we know that we can get well used to this phenomenon without losing our moving competence. So, an analog model of nature can be useful even if it is not ‘true’. What we need, therefore, is a theory on the useful interpretation of perceptions which is not based at their truthfulness. Such a theory first of all has to reply the question what criteria useful perceptions have to meet if not truthfulness. This, in turn, will provoke the question what the difference is between real and virtual reality, if ‘real’ cannot refere to the truthfulness of what we see. Such a theory on useful perceptions, once it is found, can be verified by means of appropriate VRF experiments, i.e. we can check which perceptual modifications are whitin our adaptive possibilities and which are not. It will be shown that the Theory of Cognitive Operators (TCO) (Diettrich, 2001) is a good candidate to solve this problem. We will deal with steady-state simulations of unusual visual patterns as well as with the simulation of high speed phenomena by means of a relativistic flight simulator. We will not consider dynamic effects due to time transformations t’ = f(t). The final version appeared in Alexander Riegler, Markus F. Peschl, Karl Edlinger, Günther Fleck & Walter Feigl (eds.) Virtual Reality. Cognitive Foundations, Technological Issues & Philosophical Implications. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2001. http://www.univie.ac.at/cognition/books/virtual/