Narrative and gaming experience interact to affect presence and cybersickness in virtual reality

Abstract

Research has established a link between presence and cybersickness in virtual environments, but there is significant disagreement regarding the directionality of the relationship (positive or negative) between the two factors, and if the relationship is modulated by other top-down influences. Several studies have revealed a negative association between the factors, highlighting the prospect that manipulating one factor might affect the other. Here we examined if a top-down factor (narrative context) enhances presence, and whether this effect is associated with a decrease in cybersickness. We analyzed the association between responses to questionnaire measures of cybersickness and presence, as well as the degree to which their relationship was affected by the administration of an 'enriched' or 'minimal' verbal narrative context. The results of the first experiment, conducted in a controlled laboratory environment, revealed that enriched narrative was associated with increased presence, but that the reductive effect of narrative on cybersickness depended on video gaming experience. We also observed the expected negative association between presence and cybersickness, but only in the enriched narrative group. In a second experiment, conducted with a diverse sample at a public museum, we confirmed our previous finding that presence and cybersickness are negatively correlated, specifically when participants experienced an enriched narrative. We also confirmed the interaction between narrative and gaming experience with respect to cybersickness. These results highlight the complexity of the presence-cybersickness relationship, and confirm that both factors can be modulated in a beneficial manner for virtual reality users by means of top-down interventions.

Presence Promotes Performance on a Virtual Spatial Cognition Task: Impact of Human Factors on Virtual Reality Assessment

“…For this reason, the fact that cybersickness was significantly and negatively correlated to presence is not surprising and is a common association in the literature (Weech et al, 2019), even though it is uncertain whether presence reduces cybersickness just as it reduces pain (Hoffman et al, 2004), or if cybersickness reduces presence by dragging allocating attentional resources to the physical body. Similarly, the association between video game experience and cybersickness has already been suggested and found (Knight and Arns, 2006;De Leo et al, 2014;Weech et al, 2020): interpretations for this effect might be either that video games are more appealing to people who are less susceptible to cybersickness, or that video games train players to be less susceptible to negative symptoms as they are reduced by habituation (Gavgani et al, 2017;Hildebrandt et al, 2018). It is indeed possible that habituation to sensory mismatch during video game practice trains the player to experience less cybersickness in VR, which in turn promotes the sense of presence.…”

“…To speak in ecological terms, familiarity with video games could make VR affordances more salient. This interpretation would explain why this relationship between sense of presence and video game experience is not systematically found in the literature (Alsina-Jurnet and Gutiérrez-Maldonado, 2010;Weech et al, 2020): when human-computer interaction or knowledge of global processes (or affordances) are too different from what players are used to, this skill transfer cannot happen and thus does not affect the sense of presence. It is also possible that video games, and notably intensive video games, train the players to be more focused on a virtual task and to inhibit non-pertinent stimuli, which is fundamental for the emergence of the sense of presence in VR.…”

Virtual reality and tourism marketing: conceptualizing a framework on presence, emotion, and intention

“…The negative effects of using VR, as well as users' characteristics were also omitted as presence determinants. These complex dimensions, which computer-human interaction and cyberpsychology research continue to debate (Hunt & Potter, 2018;Paroz & Potter, 2018;Weech et al, 2020), present complementary avenues and angles for future research to explore; especially as widespread VR adoption continues alongside longer, more expansive VR experiences.…”

Exergaming With Beat Saber: An Investigation of Virtual Reality Aftereffects (Preprint)

“…Typically, presence is not a prerequisite for exergames but can provide added benefits [9]. However, in VR, presence is the cornerstone of a successful virtual experience, with greater presence leading to better task performance and stronger physiological responses compared with other screen-based activities [10][11][12]. Similarly, immersion and presence in VR exergames play a major role in the motivation of users and their continued engagement [9].…”

“…High levels of VR sickness symptoms such as nausea, disorientation, and visual disturbances have been estimated to result in an average dropout rate of 15.6% [14]. VR sickness has been shown to decrease or break presence [10,11], impact motivation and enjoyment [9,16], and influence task performance [17][18][19]. Apart from the commonly assessed self-reported symptoms, depth perception and cognition may also be affected when users experience VR sickness [15,20,21]; however, little is known about these aftereffects.…”