The Spheres & Shield Maze Task: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for the Assessment of Risk Taking in Decision Making

Abstract

Risk taking (RT) is an essential component in decision-making process that depicts the propensity to make risky decisions. RT assessment has traditionally focused on self-report questionnaires. These classical tools have shown clear distance from real-life responses. Behavioral tasks assess human behavior with more fidelity, but still show some limitations related to transferability. A way to overcome these constraints is to take advantage from virtual reality (VR), to recreate real-simulated situations that might arise from performance-based assessments, supporting RT research. This article presents results of a pilot study in which 41 individuals explored a gamified VR environment: the Spheres & Shield Maze Task (SSMT). By eliciting implicit behavioral measures, we found relationships between scores obtained in the SSMT and self-reported risk-related constructs, as engagement in risky behaviors and marijuana consumption. We conclude that decontextualized Virtual Reality Serious Games are appropriate to assess RT, since they could be used as a cross-disciplinary tool to assess individuals' capabilities under the stealth assessment paradigm.

An Immersive Virtual Reality Game for Predicting Risk Taking through the Use of Implicit Measures

“…This result seems surprising, since it was expected that the use of the shield would be a somewhat more revealing variable in terms of the behaviors of the subjects, which would add richness to the predictive models of a greater number of variables. In the SSMT [58], the use of the shield was related to subdimensions of impulsivity and sensation seeking, for which similar results were expected in the predictive models of the present article. One possible reason could be that participants did not fully understand the mechanics of the shield and did not use it enough to reflect certain behavioral patterns.…”

“…This variable appears as important in the classification of the subjects in the variables of thrill and adventure seeking and disinhibition, both belonging to the dimension of sensation seeking. This variable was also measured in the previous version of AEMIN [58], and significant correlations were obtained with almost all sensation seeking subdimensions, so our results in both articles seem to be consistent. Covering a greater distance in AEMIN could be interpreted as a greater interest in exploring different areas of the maze, which could be related to the variables thrill and adventure seeking and disinhibition, since both of them are reflected in high engagement in activities that generate new sensations and in rule-breaking behaviors [21].…”

“…VR has emerged as a suitable tool for RT measurement, since it enables the exposure of a person to realistic risks, allowing embodied interactions, the application of stealth assessment techniques and physiological real-time measurement [57]. On the basis of this, we developed the spheres and shield maze task (SSMT) [58], a virtual environment for RT measurement. It consisted in an out-of-context maze, through which participants had to pass from start to finish before three minutes, accumulating as much "karma" as possible by collecting spheres down the road.…”

“…We present the assessment on decision making in risk environments (AEMIN) tool, as a new interactive virtual environment for RT measurement. As an extension of the SSMT [58], AEMIN is an interactive virtual environment that is composed by two mazes that participants must pass through from start to finish before the allocated time expires without (virtually) hurting themselves (see Figure 1a). One of the mazes must be solved individually, while in the other one the subject is accompanied by four avatars.…”

Recognition of Customers’ Impulsivity from Behavioral Patterns in Virtual Reality

“…A second study explored the impact of impulsivity on risky decisions through an immersive virtual reality game and physiological signals [66]. A third used self-assessment to investigate the impact of risky environments on the emerged level of impulsivity and sensation-seeking [67]. Although using VR in studies of consumer behavior is trending, to our knowledge, no research has been made to investigate and recognize the impacts of impulsivity on shopping behavior using virtual behavior tracking.…”