Profiles of cybersickness symptoms

Abstract

Cybersickness remains a significant problem that negatively affects the user experience in virtual reality (VR). This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to explore whether there exist groups of individuals who experience common patterns of cybersickness symptoms. Participants played a VR game for up to 20 minutes. LPA indicated three groups with low, medium, and high overall cybersickness. Further, the groups differed in relative patterns of nausea, disorientation, and oculomotor symptoms. The high cybersickness group experienced greater disorientation than nausea, and greater nausea than oculomotor (D > N > O). The medium group experienced greater nausea than disorientation, and greater disorientation than oculomotor (N > D > O). The low group experienced greater nausea than oculomotor (N > O). Characteristics of group members varied across groups, including gender, virtual reality experience, video game experience, and history of motion sickness. Identifying groups within the experience of cybersickness may provide a path toward understanding individual differences in cybersickness. Further, understanding the cybersickness experiences of different users could enable future interventions that target certain groups of individuals or certain symptoms.