Studying the effect of symmetry in team structures on collaborative tasks in virtual reality

Studies involving collaboration in groups are frequently carried out under symmetrical conditions, meaning that all team members have the same role at the same time. In Virtual Reality, symmetrical collaboration often seems attractive as it allows all participants to be included in the VR environment, but it is not clear whether this provides any benefits over asymmetric forms of collaboration, such as when some team members are in VR while others are working on laptops. We conducted a study to compare the conditions of symmetric configurations (both team members use VR) and asymmetric configurations (one member in VR, and the other uses a laptop) when two participants performed a creativity task together. We found that there were differences in participant behaviour and the ideas generated. We conclude by proposing guidelines for future work in the area, particularly related to the use of Virtual Reality for creativity workshops.