The "Break-Off" Phenomenon

Abstract

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Space—A Virtual Frontier: How to Design and Evaluate a Virtual Reality Experience of the Overview Effect

“…Consequently, an immersive VR experience that engages one's body in the experience will affect cognition on a stronger and deeper level than a solely visual experience in less immersive media. VR tends to elicit more realistic behaviors and reactions due to a feeling of embodiment and use of multisensory input (Slater, 2011;Wilson and Soranzo, 2015).…”

“…What is crucial for achieving this is designing for the immersant's sense of self-relevance and agency in the environment, which was shown to play large role in virtual body ownership (Ma and Hommel, 2015) and could sometimes be used to explain the sense of 'presence' (Herrera et al, 2006). Presence in a virtual environment has multiple components: place illusion (the feeling of 'being there') needs to be complemented by plausibility illusions (the feeling that events in the virtual environment are real) in order to effect the immersant's behavior (Slater, 2009(Slater, , 2011. Thus, the virtual environment should facilitate the plausibility illusion and appear responsive to the actions of the immersant.…”

Examining the Nature of Fear of Flying

“…In addition, fl ying involves other stimuli not routinely considered to be innate fear elicitors, but which some have considered to be so. First, Clark and Graybiel ( 2 ) and Sours ( 17 ) discuss the " break-off phenomenon " ; that is, some pilots experience an extreme type of separation anxiety when fl ying at high altitudes. Menzies and Harris ( 12 ) speculate that human beings innately respond with anxiety to situations involving separation from important others and places.…”

Neurological Aspects of Aviation Medicine

“…The interrelationship between perceptual disturbance and neurotic reaction is a close one, so when attempting to unravel etiological mechanisms in the individual patient it is often difficult to determine whether the disorientation was the manifestation of an anxiety reaction, or whether the perceptual disturbance was the cause of the anxiety (O'Connor 1967). Certainly in some aircrew it is quite clear from the anamnesis that anxiety and loss of confidence in flying ability were precipitated by an unusually intense vertigo or other illusory perception (Sours 1965). Typically, the first incident was one that created apprehension, even frank anxiety, because it was outside the individual's previous experience.…”