Exploring the Participant-Related Determinants of Simulator Sickness in a Physical Motion Car Rollover Simulation as Measured by the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire

Abstract

Physical motion driving simulators serve as a valuable research and training tool. Since many simulator participants suffer from simulator sickness (SS), we aimed to gain a better understanding of participant-related variables that may influence its incidence and severity. The study involved a 2-min mobile-platform car rollover simulation conducted in a group of 100 healthy adult participants. SS was measured with the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire immediately before and after the simulation. We investigated how the symptomatology of SS varies with gender, as well as with participants’ previous experiences such as extra driving training or car accidents. Although many SS symptoms occurred already before the simulation, all the symptoms except burping had a significantly greater incidence and severity after the simulation. Before the simulation, men reported disorientation symptoms more often than women, while participants with prior experiences of extra driving training or car accidents scored significantly higher in three out of four Questionnaire components: nausea symptoms, oculomotor symptoms, and the total score. The study offers interesting insights into associations between SS and prior experiences observed by means of high-fidelity real-motion simulations. More research is needed to determine the nature of these associations and their potential usefulness, for example, in helping accident survivors to cope with the distressing or even potentially disabling psychological consequences of accidents.

Simulation-based assessments of fire emergency preparedness and response in virtual reality

“…Furthermore, the results for H 1 , H 2 and H 3 are consistent with IVR simulation in related research works, e.g., Bilotta et al [49] Bhide [27] and Nedel et al [28], all of whom discovered that participants perceive SB fire evacuations in immersive environments positively. Likewise, Rzeźniczek et al [34] and Borrego et al [37] produced appreciable values when evaluating the effects of VRISE during assessments by administering the SSQ.…”

“…These provide a useful basis for designing and implementing IVR environments successfully for fire safety evacuation exercises [27]. Scholars have long administered the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ) to participants after SB experiments to determine SS [20,33,34]. Bhide [27] developed a framework for fire evacuation training using a desktop computer with the mouse and keyboard as controllers.…”

“…Obtained results indicated that participants exhibited better sustained attention and interest in the virtual realm than in the conventional classroom environment. In the same way, Rzeźniczek et al [34] employed the SSQ for determining the levels of SS before and after a motion car simulator experiment. Likewise, Cha et al [20] developed a VR fire simulator that displays fire dynamics based on data conversion techniques for training in fire response and rescue activities.…”