Virtual Reality Full Immersion Techniques for Enhancing Workers Performance, 20 years Later: A Review and a Reformulation <s> IV. KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION BY IMMERSION IN IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES <s> MediaMOO is a text-based, networked, virtual reality environment designed to enhance professional community among media researchers. MediaMOO officially opened on 20 January 1993 and as of December 1994 has more than 1000 members from 29 countries. An application is required to join, and only those actively engaged in media research are admitted <s> BIB001 </s> Virtual Reality Full Immersion Techniques for Enhancing Workers Performance, 20 years Later: A Review and a Reformulation <s> IV. KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION BY IMMERSION IN IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES <s> The development of interactive, participatory, multisensoryenvironments that combine the physical with the virtual comes as anatural continuation to the computer game industrys constant racefor more exciting user experiences. Specialized theme parks andvarious other leisure and entertainment centers worldwide areembracing the interactive promise that games have made usersexpect. This is not a trend limited to the entertainment domain;non-formal learning environments for children are also followingthis path, backed up by a theoretical notion of play as a coreactivity in a childs development. In this article we explore acentral thread in learning, play, as well as an essentialcharacteristic of virtual reality environments: interactivity. Acritical review of examples of immersive virtual reality worldscreated for children, with particular attention given to the roleand nature of interactivity, is attempted. Interactivity isexamined in relation to learning, play, narrative, and tocharacteristics inherent in virtual reality, such as immersion,presence, and the creation of illusion. <s> BIB002 </s> Virtual Reality Full Immersion Techniques for Enhancing Workers Performance, 20 years Later: A Review and a Reformulation <s> IV. KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION BY IMMERSION IN IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGIES <s> Abstract Students’ interest, motivation, attention and concentration, in one word their genuine engagement in learning activities, is largely considered as a potential gauge of future academic success. This paper, drawing on a research project dealing with the use of digital mind games for educational purposes in primary schools, puts forward some ideas for answering to a key research question: “Which factors may have a positive influence on young students’ involvement in computer based learning activities?” The project results suggest that student engagement is strongly related to the actual possession of the skills needed to perform the task. <s> BIB003
Constructivist learning supported by technology, focuses on how representations and applications can mediate interactions between learners and natural and social phenomena. The key to VR compatibility with constructivism relies on the notion of immersion. First-person experiences consider the treatment of activities in the world and in learning about this. First-person experiences occur when interaction with the world does not involve reflection of consciousness or use of symbols. According to the constructivist theory and with the perspectives of the Biology of Knowledge, the construction of knowledge arises from first-person experiences, which can never be entirely shared. Immersive VR allows first-person experiences through the elimination of interfaces that act in the user-computer interaction  . In this, the contribution of the VR is unique, since it allows a synthetic experience to capture the essence of what it really is. The meaning for the person approaching in order to know the world. Immersion in a virtual world allows to build knowledge from a direct experience, not from a description of the experience. Any learning that is mediated by a system of symbols, whether textual, spoken language or by a computer, is inevitably a reflection of the experience of the other. Any communication in which we use a symbolic system to communicate to another person, can never allow that person to know that world as we know it. The Constructivist theory describes how first-person worlds become internalized and argues that any imposition of symbolic representations motivated by communication requires negotiation in relation to the dominant meaning for commitment  . However, in the multi-participant VR, in which a group of participants is immersed in the same world at the same time, it will allow the negotiation of meaning to be established, and communication between participants may be required. Immersion in VR environments, allows a type of interaction with the objects with which participants interact, similar to the interaction that takes place in the real world. Biology of Knowledge, Constructivism and the so-called "Tacit Knowledge" concept (derived from Knowledge Management Theory), sustain that cognition is non-symbolic and learning is "linked" stated by Maturana  , "learning occurs when behavior of an organism varies during its ontogeny, in a manner consistent with the variations of the environment, which it does following a contingent course in its interactions with it". Likewise, the organism does not construct a representation of the environment, nor does it find a proper behavior for it. For it to operate, there is no medium, there are no things to be remembered or memory, only a structural dance in the present, which follows a course consistent with the structural dance of the medium. Otherwise the organism disintegrates. Likewise, learning is action-oriented through interaction with the virtual world, being in that moment that knowledge is built. Papert  , BIB001 uses the word "constructionism" to describe the construction of knowledge that arises from physical interaction with objects in the world. Immersive VR allows physical and perceptual interactions to occur in that synthesized world. VR extension can simulate the real world. This allows workforce formation and capacitation inside the context they are supposed to apply the acquired knowledge. In order to do this, environments must be proposed and designed following Anchored Instruction  perspective, which enable experiences with better results than that obtained when learning out of context. Learning scenarios in factories, respecting logistics and supply operations, simulating experiential marketing actions, supporting Tacit and Explicit Knowledge management, among others, will enable the tuning of learning activities, for example, within the framework of Project Based Learning (PBL) [54], allowing immersions in simulated synthetic environments, to consider aspects of reality or fiction, by modifying some variables such as time, dimensions, costs, Etc. Due to the fact that the virtual environment is computed from data, this allows the participant three kinds of knowledge building experiences that are not available in the real world; however, it can have enormous potential in workforce formation and capacitation: These concepts are called "Dimension", "Transduction" and "Reification"  . The immersion in RV, allows radical changes in the dimensions in relation to the participant and the virtual objects. In the real world, when approaching an object, it appears larger and as it moves away, it decreases in size, there are limits to both ends. There is a point at which there can be no closer approximation to the physical object and this point marks the maximum apparent dimension of an object. In the same way, there is a point at which the object disappears when distance is taken from it. In a virtual world, otherwise, one can infinitely approach or move away from objects, allowing large changes in dimension. For example, before hitting the virtual wall, the subject could obtain approximations, so that smaller and smaller details of the material from which it is constituted, the cellular structures of a wooden panel can be shown and visualized, even the molecules and atoms of which it is basically composed. From another perspective, you can expand the vision of a wall, the exterior of a house, a country or even the planet or the galaxy, all this without violating any of the four conditions for immersion. The advantages of such changes in the dimension for education are significant. Finally, it is possible for the cognitive subject to have a notion of the relative dimensions and distances between the planets of the solar system through flights from one to another. These experiences will depend largely on the metaphors proposed by the designers of these environments. Likewise, the immersion and interaction technology used in 3D VR systems allows us to overcome didactic obstacles present in topics that contain, due to their nature, situations of danger or potential risk for students  ; for example, places of difficult access or that are dangerous can be known easily and safely without the need to physically move to them, solving some problems such as: security issues, industry confidentiality restrictions, long distance trips from work or education centers, which cause transfer costs. VR, in general, is widely used in the fields of education and formation due to its potentials in stimulating interactivity BIB002 and motivation  BIB003 . Furthermore, it offers an ideal manner to approach, study and remember new knowledge for all those who prefer this learning style  . On the other hand, the primary motor cortex is the main source of neural signals that control movement, whereas the premotor cortex and supplementary motor appear to be involved in the preparation and planning of movement. Many more parts are involved in motion and communicate through neural signals. The most interesting part is the cerebellum, meaning "small brain", which it seems to be a special processing unit that is mostly devoted to motion, but is also involved in functions such as attention and language. Damage to the cerebellum has been widely seen to affect motor control and learning of new motor programs. One of the most relevant uses of the cerebellum for VR  , is in learning sensorimotor relationships, which become encoded into a motor program. All body motions involve some kind of sensory feedback. The most common example is hand-eye coordination; however, even if you move your arms with your eyes closed, proprioception provides information in the form of reference copies of the motor signals. Developing a tight connection between motor control signals and sensory and perceptual signals is crucial to many tasks. The transducers, similar to eyephones and earphones are used in VR hardware to present information to participants, and to convert participants behavior into software interpretation commands. Transducers are devices that convert information not available to our senses in other ways that are. Changes in size and transduction for access to cognitive subjects to first-person experiences could not be made otherwise. Some of these experiences arise from simulations in relation to some aspects of objects and or events. Others arise from representations through the transduction of objects and events that do not have a physical form, making them perceptible to experiences or the senses, in cases such as algebraical equations, and dynamic populations among others. "Reification" is the process of creating these perceptible forms. Reification is placed as opposed to simulation. In the simulation, the virtual world contains representations of real objects and their behaviors. Its advantage is that students can interact with them and generally, RV is a more economical alternative for building physical simulators. However, it should be noted that the power of VR can be underutilized, when used for simulation. VR is not used efficiently when it is used to create simulations that can be performed through traditional simulators. V. SOME OPEN PROBLEMS IN VR IMMERSION Immersion characteristics were analyzed by Postka  , through questionnaires designed to access individual susceptibilities for immersion and how deep this experience was to the participants. In the research reported, the questions were carefully built to cover the cognitive factors mentioned in the literature as meaningful for VR environments. A five-point scale of categorical answers was used. Two psychological factors considered as dominants for predicting immersion deepth were: the imagination needed for accepting another reality (a living imaginary turns the participation integral and satisfactory) and the concentration, attention, and selfcontrol needed to exclude real world effects of distraction. The extension of the visual field in an HMO, the precision of the egocentric localization, audio precise information (synchronized with visual changes like rotations, head movements of affirmation, or accelerations), are determinant factors of an in depth immersion. A "cognitive tracking" paradigm was used to get visual-vestibular interactions. The precise synchronization of the spatial head movements and the changes in visual perspective result in a deeper immersion, even with an imprecise coupling between head movement and changes in the visual presentation  . Cognitive factors were grouped in two categories, immersion susceptibility and quality: • Susceptibility depends on imagination (dreams, a gift for replacing old beliefs), a living imaginary (dreaming, previous expectations about VR environments), concentration and attention (attention filtering, cognitive conflict by two recursive immersions, spatial navigation), and self-control (active participation and catharsis). easily perceived and remain a disturbance factor in several VR applications. Psotka  reports that with an exhibition vision greater than 60 • (field of view, FOV), several individuals relate some level of discomfort although not mentioning nausea, (fields of vision less than 60 • FOV, produce a poor sense of immersion. Nowadays a FOV 210 • horizontal and 130 • vertical is reached). The relationship between behavior and the study about self-oriented emotions are strongly dependent on FOV. The most influent requirement for immersion is a solid coupling between head movement and visual exhibition. Data input delays in visual exhibition using HMD immersion results in a brisk interruption of spatial orientation and a poor immersion experience  . Immersion can be understood as a dual phenomenon; from one side it depends on subconscious skills and, from the other side it depends on our voluntary attention abilities that depend on self-control, self-consciousness, will, expectations, etc. Those two factors (implicit versus conscious immersion control) are captured by the found correlation that immersion is more complete in someone that is able to have dreams in colours  . How those two components interact is a mystery. The implicit and conscious components seem to perform different things without affecting one another directly. These factors appear so briskly that they make themselves visible in all three sets of correlation: in the susceptibility factors, in the immersion factors, and in their inter correlations. Implicit factors present a kind of dominance. If the delay between the iteraction and the visual feedback of a movement perceived by a hand in VR is too big, there is no image filtering technique sufficient to reduce this delay, disturbance occurs. When the visual system indicates that the egocentric or corporal image is in a certain location but the kinesthetic centers are in some near place, there is no way to integrate these two positions. A long time may be necessary for the learning and adaptation processes to change the cognitive machinery  . Despite the important advances, the treatment of the cognitive and perceptual components of immersion is a longterm challenge, which is required for capacitation and formation, and for educational proposals, because it is known that many of the cognitive representations are in the form of mental models for the understanding of complex systems. Research in VR should be focused on transforming knowledge into experience and turning education, formation and capacitation into more direct and effective action  . Instead of supplying access to a greater cyberspace, the equipment used nowadays is still causing sensations like claustrophobia, nausea and confusion after the experiment  . For La Valle  , signals from multiple senses and proprioception are being processed and combined with our experiences by our neural structures throughout our lives. In ordinary life, without VR or drugs, our brains interpret these combinations of inputs in coherent, consistent, and familiar ways. Any attempt to interfere with these operations is likely to cause a mismatch among the data from our senses. The brain may react in a variety of ways. It could be the case that we are not consciously aware of the conflict, but we may become fatigued or develop a headache. Even worse, we could develop symptoms of dizziness or nausea. In other cases, the brain might react by making us so consciously aware of the conflict that we immediately understand that the experience is artificial. This would correspond to a case in which the VR fails to convince people that they are present in a virtual world. While it is true that since the publication of the original article to the present, many of these problems have been overcome or their effects have been reduced, mainly due to innovative approaches and contemporary technological resources applied in the design and development of different elements of hardware and software of immersive technologies, it is seen that efforts and constant research in the area, must achieve improvements and optimizations that are increasingly important, envisioning the improvement of quality, usability and ergonomic attributes of different devices in humanmachine interaction. However, some of these problems must be considered in the analysis and development of systems for education, training and human talent, since the characteristics and particularities of different work environments, the diversity of learning styles and thinking of apprentices, as well as the different educational approaches and conceptions of resources, generate demands for systems and learning objects, with a high degree of adaptability to individual profiles, interests and characteristics of cognitive subjects. The holistic incorporation of some characteristics of the different approaches reviewed, such as the Biology of Cognition, Educational Sciences and especially of Knowledge Management, would make possible the construction of useful environments for a diversity of scenarios and cognoscent subjects.