Inter- and Transcultural Learning in Social Virtual Reality: A Proposal for an Inter- and Transcultural Virtual Object Database to be Used in the Implementation, Reflection, and Evaluation of Virtual Encounters

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Manuscript ID: mti-1765161

Inter- and Transcultural Learning in Social Virtual Reality: A Proposal for an Inter- and Transcultural Virtual Object Database to be Used in the Implementation, Reflection, and Evaluation of Virtual Encounters

The authors present a study investigating the participants’ attitude towards inter- and transcultural learning in social VR. A collection of virtual objects (resulting in 128 objects) based on empirical evaluation for inter-and transcultural encounters between English- and German-speaking learners was created and evaluated in two studies. The study included a large number of participants and is important for the field.

The authors could consider the following suggestions for improvement.

1.      The study addresses the objects as VR ready, however no actual VR evaluation was conducted. The authors address this issue in the study limitations, however the title may be misleading.

2.      In study 2, 132 participants are mentioned. However in figure 3, only 112 participants are shown (N=112). The authors should clarify this.

Author Response

Thank you for the review

1. we discussed in this work that no VR evaluation has taken place yet, however, it is planned. The objects are VR-ready and have already been added to Unity and tested in social VR.

2. This error has been corrected.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper "Inter- and Transcultural Learning in Social Virtual Reality: A Proposal for an Inter- and Transcultural Virtual Object Database to be Used in the Implementation, Reflection, and Evaluation of Virtual Encounters" applied virtual objects based on the transcultural evaluation between English and German learners. Cultural associations and stereotypical perception degrees were computed for every virtual stimuli. The outcomes consist in a database of 128 objects that can used for interaction in social virtual reality applications.

- Originality/Novelty: The work is original, as it offers new ways to see and think according to different culture, liek the English and German ones. The aim of this paper was to reduce culture to generic objects that will be used in virtual reality applications. The overall plagiarism is low, but some paragraphs were copied without adding the proper reference, such as:

* "For example, in an augmented reality (AR) application, Yang and Liao enabled 29

students to translate, rotate, scale, and change virtual objects in 3D using intuitive hand gestures. This allowed cultural content to be easily and quickly visualized and thus paraphrased [6]." -> thi is taken from reference [3], namely Hein, R.M.; Wienrich, C.; Latoschik, M.E. A systematic review of foreign language learning with immersive technologies (2001-2020). AIMS Electronics and Electrical Engineering 2021, 5, 117–145.

* "Only when we can systematically manipulate variables and only when we can assess the manipulations’ impact, we acquire knowledge with practical impact [8]." -> this was taken from a paper which is not even cited, namely Marc Erich Latoschik, Carolin Wienrich, Congruence and Plausibility, not Presence?! Pivotal Conditions for XR Experiences and Effects, a Novel Model, https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.04846.

* Some paragraphs are copied word by word, like "These potentials might be highly relevant for foreign language learning, especially 80 in the current Covid-19 pandemic and climate crises, where immersion programs are less 81 feasible [3].". Even if you use some paper and cite it, please avoid copying entire phrases.

* Same as mentioned before for "Peeters et al., [27], introduced a database of 147 colored 3D objects standardized for name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, visual complexity, and corresponding lexical characteristics of the modal object names. An in-house graphic designer designed them for ongoing experimental VR studies.".

- Significance: The results of the research are interpreted properly, the explicit assignment to cultural areas for object sets being performed.

- Quality of Presentation: The article is written appropriately, respecting the logical succession of sections. Data and analyses are presented graphically and inside tables. The results were outlined using high standards, the advantages of the object sets being very clear.

- Scientific Soundness: The paper offers enough details to allow the reproduction of the results.

- Interest to the Readers: The content of the article would surely interest the readers of the Multimodal Technologies and Interaction journal, and not only them.  

- Overall Merit:  The findings and their implications should be discussed in the broadest context possible and limitations of the work should be also further highlighted. Please present the novelty compared to the previous published papers in the last 2 years.

- English Level: The level of English language is advanced. Through the entire paper, the language was appropriate and understandable, being easy to follow the flow since the beginning.

Author Response

Thank you for the review. 

The authors have added or rewritten the text passages with missing or inappropriate references. Thank you for the detailed comments.

Regarding Overall Merit: The 3D and 360° normative databases presented in the Related work part are i.a. from the years 2020 and 2021. It was highlighted that these databases are not very suitable for the use of inter-and transcultural encounters via Social VR. Therefore, the novelty is presented compared to the previously published papers in the last 2 years.