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The influence of personality, sound, and content difficulty on virtual reality sickness

  • S.I. : VR and Cognitive Science
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Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) sickness is a condition that may occur during or after exposure to a virtual environment and can induce symptoms such as headache and eye strain. VR sickness can be influenced by several factors. One individual factor that might affect VR sickness is personality. Non-individual factors that may influence VR sickness are sound and content difficulty. The aim of this study was to observe the influence of personality, sound, and content difficulties on VR sickness in one specific game. An experiment with a VR game was conducted, involving 60 students representing six different personalities: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience. Participants were instructed to complete a visual search game with different levels of sound and content difficulty. VR sickness was assessed in each condition using a VR Sickness Questionnaire consisting of two dimensions: oculomotor (consists of general discomfort, fatigue, eye strain, and difficulty in focusing) and disorientation (consists of headache, fullness of head, blurred vision, dizziness with eyes closed, and vertigo). Data were processed using descriptive and separate mixed ANOVA. The results showed that the effect of personality was significant for the VR sickness dimensions oculomotor and disorientation. The Emotionality personality reported the highest oculomotor and disorientation scores. There was no significant difference in oculomotor and disorientation scores based on sound and content difficulty. The implications of the results were discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Work System Design and Ergonomics, Department of Industrial Engineering, Bandung Institute of Technology, Ganesa 10, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia

    Ari Widyanti & Hana Nadhilah Hafizhah

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  1. Ari Widyanti
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  2. Hana Nadhilah Hafizhah
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Correspondence to Ari Widyanti.

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Widyanti, A., Hafizhah, H.N. The influence of personality, sound, and content difficulty on virtual reality sickness. Virtual Reality 26, 631–637 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-021-00525-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-021-00525-2

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