Within the Virtuality Continuum from completely real to completely virtual, Augmented Virtuality (AV) has been much less explored in comparison to studies on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. This project aims to understand whether adding artefacts from the physical world into the virtual world (Augmented-virtuality) increases sense of presence and enhances the efficacy of an Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) to achieve its intended purpose. A study was designed where the purpose of the IVA was to reduce study stress in students. The between-subjects experiment involved 50 participants in two groups: The Augmented-virtual group and the Virtual group. The Augmented-virtual group experienced a Virtual Reality (VR) environment augmented with a chair and coffee table also experienced in the real world. The Virtual group experienced the same VR environment without augmentation; the real chair does not match the virtual chair and the virtual coffee table does not exist in the real world. Self-reporting and heart rate were analysed to measure stress levels. Self-reporting indicated significant changes in study stress (participants’ cognitive level) for both groups. However, measurement of stress via heart rate (participants’ physical level) was significantly reduced for the Augmented-virtual group, who also reported higher presence. Presence instruments only revealed significant differences for items relevant to visual aspects, as other aspects were not manipulated. We conclude that augmenting virtual worlds with elements concurrently experienced in the real world may increase sense of presence and enhance simulation efficacy, e.g. increased stress reduction, when compared to the use of VR only.

在从完全真实到完全虚拟的虚拟连续体中，与虚拟现实和增强现实的研究相比，增强虚拟化（AV）的研究少得多。该项目旨在了解是否将来自物理世界的伪像添加到虚拟世界（增强虚拟性）中，从而增加存在感并增强智能虚拟代理（IVA）达到其预期目的的功效。设计一项研究时，IVA的目的是减轻学生的学习压力。受试者之间的实验分为两组，分别有50名参与者：增强虚拟小组和虚拟小组。Augmented-virtual小组体验了虚拟现实（VR）环境，并增加了在现实世界中也有经验的椅子和茶几。虚拟团队在没有扩充的情况下体验了相同的VR环境；真实椅子与虚拟椅子不匹配，并且虚拟咖啡桌在现实世界中不存在。分析自我报告和心率，以测量压力水平。自我报告表明两组的研究压力（参与者的认知水平）都有显着变化。但是，增强虚拟组的通过心率（参与者的身体水平）进行的压力测量显着降低，该组的虚拟存在也更高。在场工具仅显示与视觉方面相关的项目的显着差异，因为其他方面未得到操纵。我们得出结论，用在现实世界中同时经历的元素来扩展虚拟世界可能会增加存在感并增强仿真效率，例如