In perceiving a virtual environment (VE), distance perception is important in that it affects users’ behaviors and interactions. This study addresses an on-going issue of virtual reality (VR), distance underestimation within a VE. For this purpose, a 2x2x2x5 mixed design was used with two between-subject variables [visual cue for perception (provided and non-provided) and visual cue for action (provided and non-provided)] and two within-subject variables [response measure (verbal estimation and triangulated blind walking) and distance (1 m, 5 m, 10 m, 20 m, and 35 m)]. Sixty-four undergraduate or graduate students participated in the experiment, and a cube was chosen as the target object. The experimental results showed that visual cues for action mitigated distance underestimation and improved the accuracy of perceived distances. In general, distance underestimation was more obvious in the triangulated blind walking than the verbal estimation, and in the action/vista space than personal space, with relatively lower accuracies. Meanwhile, when visual cue for action were provided, the degree of underestimation decreased significantly with higher accuracy particularly in the triangulated blind walking. Although overestimation was found across all the distances in the verbal estimation, overestimation was found only for the personal distance, and underestimation was found for the action/vista distances in the triangulated blind walking. In both response measures, the accuracy of distance perceptions were the worst in the 10 m condition. These findings can be expected to provide insight into the problem of distance underestimation and can help guide design of VEs.

在感知虚拟环境（VE）时，距离感知很重要，因为它会影响用户的行为和交互。这项研究解决了虚拟现实（VR）这一持续存在的问题，即虚拟现实中的距离低估。为此，我们使用了2x2x2x5混合设计，其中包含两个对象间变量[感知的视觉提示（提供和不提供）和动作的视觉提示（提供和不提供）]和两个对象内部的变量[响应度量（语言估计和三角盲步行）和距离（1 m，5 m，10 m，20 m和35 m）]。六十四名本科生或研究生参加了该实验，并选择了一个立方体作为目标对象。实验结果表明，行动的视觉线索减轻了距离低估的可能性，并提高了感知距离的准确性。一般来说，在三角盲步行中，距离低估比在言语估计中更为明显，在动作/视觉空间中比在个人空间中更为明显，准确性相对较低。同时，当提供视觉提示以采取行动时，低估程度明显降低，且准确性更高，尤其是在三角盲步行中。尽管在言语估计中所有距离上都发现了高估，但仅在个人距离上发现了高估，而在三角盲步行中发现了动作/粘滞距离的低估。在这两种响应措施中，距离感知的准确性在10 m条件下都是最差的。预期这些发现可以提供对距离低估问题的洞察，并有助于指导VE的设计。