Avatar Fidelity and Partner Representation in Collaborative Extended Reality

Abstract

Collaborative extended reality systems depend critically on how partners are represented. This thesis examines how avatar fidelity and partner representation shape coordination in shared immersive tasks. Two empirical studies compare representation conditions across asymmetric guidance and fast-paced shared-workspace interaction. The results show that more realistic or human-like representations do not uniformly improve collaboration. Instead, different representation conditions produce distinct coordination tradeoffs across task performance, errors, interference management, workload, social presence, and subjective experience. In gesture-dependent guidance, human-like appearance without corresponding behavioral support increases coordination costs. In fast-paced shared-workspace interaction, similar overall performance can emerge through different coordination strategies, including variations in selectivity, caution, and interference management. Together, the studies show that partner representation systematically shapes coordination processes and tradeoffs. It should therefore be understood as a design factor that determines what information collaborators can use and how they coordinate action, rather than simply as a means of increasing realism.