Experiencing Nature through Immersive Virtual Environments: Environmental Perceptions, Physical Engagement, and Affective Responses during a Simulated Nature Walk

Abstract

By combining physical activity and exposure to nature, green exercise can provide additional health benefits compared to physical activity alone. Immersive Virtual Environments (IVE) have emerged as a potentially valuable supplement to environmental and behavioral research, and might also provide new approaches to green exercise promotion. However, it is unknown to what extent green exercise in IVE can provide psychophysiological responses similar to those experienced in real natural environments. In this study, 26 healthy adults underwent three experimental conditions: nature walk, sitting-IVE, and treadmill-IVE. The nature walk took place on a paved trail along a large river. In the IVE conditions, the participants wore a head-mounted display with headphones reproducing a 360° video and audio of the nature walk, either sitting on a chair or walking on a manually driven treadmill. Measurements included environmental perceptions (presence and perceived environmental restorativeness – PER), physical engagement (walking speed, heart rate, and perceived exertion), and affective responses (enjoyment and affect). Additionally, qualitative information was collected through open-ended questions. The participants rated the IVEs with satisfactory levels of ‘being there’ and ‘sense of reality,’ but also reported discomforts such as ‘flatness,’ ‘movement lag’ and ‘cyber sickness.’ With equivalent heart rate and walking speed, participants reported higher perceived exertion in the IVEs than in the nature walk. The nature walk was associated with high enjoyment and enhanced affect. However, despite equivalent ratings of PER in the nature walk and in the IVEs, the latter were perceived as less enjoyable and gave rise to a poorer affect. Presence and PER did not differ between the two IVEs, although in the treadmill-IVE the negative affective responses had slightly smaller magnitude than in the sitting-IVE. In both the IVEs, the negative affective responses were mainly associated with cyber sickness, whereas PER was positively associated with enjoyment. From the qualitative analysis, it emerged that poor postural control and lack of a holistic sensory experience can also hinder immersion in the IVE. The results indicate that IVE technology might in future be a useful instrument in green exercise research and promotion, but only if image quality and cyber sickness can be addressed.

Enable, Reconnect and Augment: A New ERA of Virtual Nature Research and Application

“…It is less stressful, you know where you are, you can stop and look, for example, at birds anytime." ( [39]; unpublished quote). Moreover, we should bear in mind Levi and Kocher's warning: "the problem with virtual nature-like the problem with plastic trees-is that the value of nature is more than the experiential and recreational benefits it provides to people.…”

“…This paradox must be solved in order to increase the usefulness of IVN, as the most advanced displays may be needed to provide a sufficient degree of presence. Luckily, researchers continue to identify factors that either increase or decrease the levels of cyber sickness, such as habituation, scene oscillation, movement lag and exposure time [34,[39][40][41].…”

“…Combining IVN and physical activity, a combination that may be defined as virtual green exercise (i.e., physical activity in the presence of technological nature), introduces additional challenges, mainly associated with the issue of maintaining balance and, thus, exacerbating the sensory conflict leading to cyber sickness. In a study of virtual green exercise it was found that cyber sickness had a severe detrimental effect on participants' emotional responses, which lead to a significant difference in participants' emotional states after a bout of real green exercise compared to virtual green exercise [39]. Several participants also complained about the difficulties of maintaining balance and reported frustration because their movements did not sufficiently match the movements in the virtual environment [39].…”

“…In a study of virtual green exercise it was found that cyber sickness had a severe detrimental effect on participants' emotional responses, which lead to a significant difference in participants' emotional states after a bout of real green exercise compared to virtual green exercise [39]. Several participants also complained about the difficulties of maintaining balance and reported frustration because their movements did not sufficiently match the movements in the virtual environment [39]. Technology is advancing rapidly, and some of the challenges mentioned above might be addressed in the near future.…”

Examination of electrodermal and cardio-vascular reactivity in virtual reality through a combined stress induction protocol

“…Furthermore, compared to alternatives. the effectiveness of head-mounted display (HMD)-based exposure is not clear as reported in Calogiuri et al (2018) and Kim et al (2014). Given the enormity of the leap from the omnipresent desktop interaction techniques to an unexplored language of interaction in VR, the design process associated with such media is expected to evolve accordingly.…”