Research has confirmed that console video games give rise to motion sickness in many adults. During exposure to console video games, there are differences in postural activity (movement of the head and torso) between participants who later experience motion sickness and those who do not, confirming a prediction of the postural instability theory of motion sickness. Previous research has not addressed relations between video games, movement and motion sickness in children. We evaluated the nauseogenic properties of a commercially available console video game in both adults and 10-year-old children. Individuals played the game for up to 50 min and were instructed to discontinue immediately if they experienced any symptoms of motion sickness, however mild. During game play, we monitored movement of the head and torso. Motion sickness was reported by 67% of adults and by 56% of children; these rates did not differ. As a group, children moved more than adults. Across age groups, the positional variability of the head and torso increased over time during game play. In addition, we found differences in movement between participants who later reported motion sickness and those who did not. Some of these differences were general across age groups but we also found significant differences between the movement of adults and children who later reported motion sickness. The results confirm that console video games can induce motion sickness in children and demonstrate that changes in postural activity precede the onset of subjective symptoms of motion sickness in children.

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The authors investigated the perception of affordances for aperture passage in an environment-person-person (E-P-P) system, which comprised an adult perceiver and a child as a companion. Perceivers were 8 large and 8 small female undergraduates and were companioned with 1 large and 1 small girl. The perceivers perceptually judged the minimum aperture width for the E-P-P system, and then the adult-child dyads (a pair of people) actually walked through to determine the system's actual minimum aperture width. Results demonstrated that perceivers precisely judged the action capabilities of an E-P-P system on the basis of the body-scaled information of each adult-child dyad. The findings extended the previous concept of affordances for an environment-person system to affordances for an E-P-P system.

We investigated relations between experience driving physical automobiles and motion sickness during the driving of virtual automobiles. Middle-aged individuals drove a virtual automobile in a driving video game. Drivers were individuals who had possessed a driver’s license for approximately 30 years, and who drove regularly, while non-drivers were individuals who had never held a driver’s license, or who had not driven for more than 15 years. During virtual driving, we monitored movement of the head and torso. During virtual driving, drivers became motion sick more rapidly than non-drivers, but the incidence and severity of motion sickness did not differ as a function of driving experience. Patterns of movement during virtual driving differed as a function of driving experience. Separately, movement differed between participants who later became motion sick and those who did not. Most importantly, physical driving experience influenced patterns of postural activity that preceded motion sickness during virtual driving. The results are consistent with the postural instability theory of motion sickness, and help to illuminate relations between the control of physical and virtual vehicles.

The results are consistent with the postural instability theory of motion sickness, and help to illuminate relationships between the control of physical and virtual vehicles.Chang C-H, Chen F-C, Kung W-C, Stoffregen TA. Effects of physical driving experience on body movement and motion sickness during virtual driving. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(11):985-992.