Field-of-View Restriction to Reduce VR Sickness Does Not Impede Spatial Learning in Women

Abstract

Women are more likely to experience virtual reality (VR) sickness than men, which could pose a major challenge to the mass market success of VR. Because VR sickness often results from a visual-vestibular conflict, an effective strategy to mitigate conflict is to restrict the user’s field-of-view (FOV) during locomotion. Sex differences in spatial cognition have been well researched, with several studies reporting that men exhibit better spatial navigation performance in desktop three-dimensional environments than women. However, additional research suggests that this sex difference can be mitigated by providing a larger FOV as this increases the availability of landmarks, which women tend to rely on more than men. Though FOV restriction is already a widely used strategy for VR headsets to minimize VR sickness, it is currently not well understood if it impedes spatial learning in women due to decreased availability of landmarks. Our study (n=28, 14 men and 14 women) found that a dynamic FOV restrictor was equally effective in reducing VR sickness in both sexes, and no sex differences in VR sickness incidence were found. Our study did find a sex difference in spatial learning ability, but an FOV restrictor did not impede spatial learning in either sex.

Investigating the effectiveness of immersive VR skill training and its link to physiological arousal

“…The task is in the form of a straight wire which has no bends so that there is no unintended extra 'training effect' for participants in the VR condition. • Differences in media In addition to the above two features which distinguishes VR from the physical, there are other differences arising from the nature of the VR medium itself, for example-the field of view and the visual acuity provided by the Quest HMD are lower compared to that provided by healthy human vision (Adhanom et al 2021;Cuervo et al 2018). Additionally, the weight of the HMD has not been replicated in the physical condition.…”

CyPVICS: A framework to prevent or minimise cybersickness in immersive virtual clinical simulation

“…To explain: a normal field of view of 96° can be limited to 60° to reduce CS. Various research studies have shown that by restricting the field of view or dynamically controlling the field of view, a significant drop in CS symptoms occurs [ 42 , 62 , 88 , 89 , [92] , [93] , [94] , [95] , 99 ]. Therefore, field of view restriction/control was added as a technique to minimise or prevent CS in the CyPVICS Framework.…”

Impaired stationarity perception is associated with increased virtual reality sickness

“…Despite this uncertainty, the associations are informative and may both explain the effectiveness of existing sickness mitigation methods, as well as point the way toward new methods. For example, tunneling is a method whereby the field of view of the VR display is restricted when optic flow is presented, thereby reducing peripheral stimulation ( Fernandes & Feiner, 2016 ; Al Zayer, Adhanom, MacNeilage, & Folmer, 2019 ; Adhanom, Navarro Griffin, Macneilage, & Folmer, 2020 ; Adhanom, Al-Zayer, Macneilage, & Folmer, 2021 ). This method has proven effective in reducing symptoms of sickness.…”