The Effects of Auditory, Visual, and Cognitive Distractions on Cybersickness in Virtual Reality

Cybersickness (CS) is one of the challenges that has hindered the widespread adoption of Virtual Reality (VR). Consequently, researchers continue to explore novel means to mitigate the undesirable effects associated with this affliction, one that may require a combination of remedies as opposed to a solitary stratagem. Inspired by research probing into the use of distractions as a means to control pain, we investigated the efficacy of this countermeasure against CS, studying how the introduction of temporally time-gated distractions affects this malady during a virtual experience featuring active exploration. Downstream of this, we studied how other aspects of the VR experience are affected by this intervention. We discuss the results of a between-subjects study manipulating the presence, sensory modality, and nature of periodic and short-lived (5–12 seconds) distractor stimuli across four experimental conditions: 1) no-distractors (ND); 2) auditory distractors (AD); 3) visual distractors (VD); 4) cognitive distractors (CD). Two of these conditions (VD and AD) formed a yoked control design wherein every matched pair of ‘seers’ and ‘hearers’ was periodically exposed to distractors that were identical in terms of content, temporality, duration, and sequence. In the CD condition, each participant had to periodically perform a 2-back working memory task, the duration and temporality of which was matched to distractors presented in each matched pair of the yoked conditions. These three conditions were compared to a baseline control group featuring no distractions. Results indicated that the reported sickness levels were lower in all three distraction groups in comparison to the control group. The intervention also increased the amount of time users were able to endure the VR simulation and avoided causing detriments to spatial memory and virtual travel efficiency. Overall, it appears that it may be possible to make users less consciously aware and bothered by the symptoms of CS, thereby reducing its perceived severity.

I. Introduction

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is increasingly seeing the integration of its applications into the areas of gaming [26], training [33], education [11], therapy [112], sports [62], driving and perception research [19], [39], [109], etc. Even with the technology’s continuous permeation into our lives, its widespread adoption remains long overdue. This can largely be attributed to cybersickness (CS), an affliction akin to motion sickness (MS) which often accompanies VR experiences, inhibiting its sustained usage. Cybersickness strongly manifests in virtual experiences that involve motion wherein the user experiences vection or visual stimulation suggestive of self-motion in the absence of real body motion [49]. The malady is hence often referred to as visually induced motion sickness (VIMS) and includes similar undesirable symptoms such as dizziness, disorientation, nausea, fatigue, pallor, headache, eye strain, etc. [49], [55]. Given that modern VR applications often feature expansive, immersive virtual environments (IVEs) that involve travel and exploration, there is an increased potential for the manifestation of CS, making it highly important to study factors that affect its onset and severity in attempting to mitigate its deleterious effects. The research community continues to explore novel countermeasures for the diminution and excision of CS, an affliction that may require a combination of remedies as opposed to a solitary stratagem.