Temporal Development of Sense of Presence and Cybersickness during an Immersive VR Experience

Abstract

Following the advances in modern head-mounted displays, research exploring the human experience of virtual environments has seen a surge in interest. Researchers have examined how to promote individuals’ sense of presence, i.e., their experience of “being” in the VE, as well as to diminish the negative side effects of cybersickness. Studies investigating the relationship between sense of presence and cybersickness have reported heterogeneous results. Authors that found a positive relation have argued that the phenomena have shared cognitive underpinnings. However, recent literature has reported that positive associations can be explained by the confounding factor of immersion. The current study aims to investigate how cybersickness and sense of presence are associated and develop over time. During the experiment, participants were exposed to a virtual roller coaster and presented orally with questions aimed to quantify their perceived sense of presence and cybersickness. The results of the experiment indicate that cybersickness and sense of presence are both modulated by the time spent in the virtual setting. The utilized short measures for sense of presence and cybersickness were found to be reliable alternatives to multi-item questionnaires.

Association of the Big Five Personality Traits with Training Effectiveness, Sense of Presence, and Cybersickness in Virtual Reality

“…The meta-review of Weech et al [21] argues that the relationship is negative and that studies finding positive associations are explainable by the confounding variable of immersion. A recent study by [48] gave evidence for this theory. By continuously measuring the association of cybersickness and sense of presence, the authors found simultaneous measurements in time to explain the positive association.…”

Comparative analysis of spatial ability in immersive and non-immersive virtual reality: the role of sense of presence, simulation sickness and cognitive load

“…Conversely, a meta-review by Weech et al (2019) posits a negative correlation between the two constructs, arguing that positive associations are explainable by the covariate of immersion. Thorp et al (2022) found that the development of SoP and SS follow a similar temporal development, positively correlating throughout the experiment. The authors propose that covariates such as immersion, excitement, engagement, or CL similarly impact SS and SoP, explaining the positive relationship.…”

A study on presence quality and cybersickness in 2D, smartphone, and VR

“…In another study [9], the relation between cybersickness and repeated exposure to the VR environment may end up in the reduction of cybersickness for certain VR contents. In [10], the cybersickness and presence experienced in a VR environment are found to have a temporal relationship. In [11], the presence and cybersickness are shown to be related to the dynamic FoV, where the restriction of dynamic FoV can reduce the cybersickness and improve the presence in a VR environment.…”

“…The complex relation between presence and cybersickness is difficult to understand. There are various studies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] that model the relation between the presence and cybersickness in a VR environment [7]. In general, the presence and cybersickness have an inverse relationship.…”