Correlating reaction time and nausea measures with traditional measures of cybersickness

Abstract

We provoked cybersickness in participants by immersing them in one of two virtual roller coaster rides using a head-mounted display. As simulation technology is often used in training, our main intention was to examine the effect of the experience on their cognitive function. Participant reaction times before and after the experience were measured by averaging their response time to a visual stimulus over a number of trials. We measured a significant reduction in response time before and after the virtual experience. We also examined the changing state of nausea experienced by participants using some simple nausea measures. These included a repeated nausea rating recorded by participants at two-minute intervals. At the completion of the experience, we averaged these ratings to create a standard nausea score. As participants could decide to stop the experience at any time, we also recorded the voluntary duration of the experience. We correlated our measures with two traditional simulator sickness measures, namely the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ) and Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire (MSAQ). The standard nausea score provided a simple measure of nausea that could be collected at regular intervals with minimal interference to the immersive experience, and was significantly correlated with both the MSSQ and MSAQ scores.