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Developmental change in body form cues for sensing the self: a VR body illusion study [dataset] Open Access

The visual ’form’ features of our bodies contributing to a sense of embodiment (owning, controlling, and being located within one’s body) can be studied using virtual reality body illusions that manipulate avatar appearance. Work with adults suggests that for embodiment, structural form (e.g. shape, size, position) is more important than material form (e.g. colour, texture). This may not be true for children, whose bodies’ structural details change throughout development. Little work has systematically assessed the separate contributions of structural and material body form properties to embodiment, especially in childhood. The present study uses virtual reality with four controllable full-body avatars in children (aged 5-10 years) and adults (aged 18-42 years): an unaltered humanoid, a distortion of structure, of material, and of both. Embodiment is measured with self-report ratings for ownership, agency, and perceived body functional usefulness, as well as walking distance during exploration. We find some commonalities between adults and children, with structural form having greater influence than material form on exploratory walking and perceived body functional usefulness judgements. However, children place greater importance than adults on material form for body ownership, and on structural form for agency. We discuss implications of these novel findings for embodiment and development.

Descriptions

Resource type

Dataset

Contributors

Creator: Sill, Oscar ¹
Contact person: Sill, Oscar ¹
Data collector: Sill, Oscar ¹
Thurlbeck, Simon ¹
Lengieza, Michael ¹
Kentridge, Robert ¹
Cowie, Dorothy ¹

¹ Durham University, UK

Funder

Durham University

Research methods

Motion capture, Virtual reality

Other description

Keyword

dataset
body illusion
embodiment
body ownership
consciousness
development
childhood
self
visual perception
own-body perception

Subject

Child development
Human growth
Self-consciousness (Awareness)

Location

Language

English

Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r2bv73c048v
doi:10.15128/r2bv73c048v

Rights

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA)

Publisher

Durham University

Date Created

File Details

Depositor

O.J.G. Sill

Date Uploaded

14 November 2025, 11:11:11

Date Modified

19 November 2025, 15:11:54

Audit Status

Audits have not yet been run on this file.

Characterization

File format: vnd.ms-excel (Microsoft Excel 2007+, OpenDocument Text)

Mime type: application/vnd.ms-excel

File size: 66163

Last modified: 2025:11:19 14:54:36+00:00

Filename: Sill et al. Body Form all_data_long.xlsx

Original checksum: e0652a6ff20390a16ffd272ce8d81754