Virtual reality (VR) might increase the ecological validity of psychological studies as it allows submerging into real-life experiences under controlled laboratory conditions. We intended to provide empirical evidence for this claim at the example of the famous invisible gorilla paradigm (Simons and Chabris in Perception, 28(9), 1059–1074, 1999). To this end, we confronted one group of participants with a conventional 2D-video of two teams passing basketballs. To the second group of participants, we presented the same stimulus material as a 3D360°-VR-video and to a third group as a 2D360°-VR-video. Replicating the original findings, in the video condition, only ~ 30% of the participants noticed the gorilla. However, in both VR-conditions, the detection rate was increased to ~ 70%. The illusion of spatial proximity in VR enhances the salience of the gorilla, thereby enhancing the noticing rate. VR mimics the perceptual characteristics of the real world and provides a useful tool for psychological studies.

虚拟现实（VR）可能会淹没在受控实验室条件下的现实生活中，因此可能会提高心理学研究的生态有效性。我们打算以著名的隐形大猩猩范例（Simons and Chabris in Perception，28（9），1059–1074，1999）为该说法提供经验证据。为此，我们面对了一组参与者，提供了由两支球队通过篮球比赛的常规2D视频。我们向第二组参与者展示了与3D360°-VR视频相同的刺激材料，向第三组参与者展示了与2D360°-VR视频相同的刺激材料。复制原始结果，在视频条件下，只有〜30％的参与者注意到大猩猩。但是，在两种VR条件下，检测率均增加到〜70％。VR中空间接近性的错觉增强了大猩猩的显着性，从而提高了关注率。VR模仿了现实世界的感知特性，并为心理学研究提供了有用的工具。