Identification Of System Design Features That Affect Sickness In Virtual Environments

The terms simulator and VR are typically used to refer to specific types of virtual environments (VEs) which differ in the technology used to display the simulated environment. While simulators and VR devices may offer advantages such as low cost training, numerous studies on the effects to humans of exposure to different VEs indicate that motion sickness-like symptoms are often produced during or after exposure to the simulated environment. These deleterious side effects have the potential to limit the utilization of VE systems if they jeopardize the health and/or safety of the user and create liability issues for the manufacturer. The most widely used method for assessing the adverse symptoms of VE exposure is the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). The method of scoring the symptoms reported by VE users permits the different sickness symptoms to be clustered into three general types of effects or subscales and the distribution or pattern of the three SSQ subscales provides a profile for a given VE device. In the current research, several different statistical analyses were conducted on the SSQ data obtained from 21 different simulator studies and 16 different VR studies in order to identify an underlying symptom structure (i.e., SSQ profile) or severity difference for various types of VE systems. The results of the research showed statistically significant differences in the SSQ profiles and the overall severity of sickness between simulator and VR systems, which provide evidence that simulator sickness and VR sickness represent distinct forms of motion sickness. Analyses on three types of simulators (i.e., Fixed- and Rotary-Wing flight simulators and Driving simulators) also found significant differences in the sickness profiles as well as the overall severity of sickness within different types of simulator systems. Analyses on three types of VR systems (i.e., HMD, BOOM, and CAVE) revealed that BOOM and CAVE systems have similar sickness profiles, which are different than the HMD system profile. Moreover, the results showed that the overall severity of sickness was greater in HMD systems than in BOOM and CAVE systems. Recommendations for future research included additional psychophysical studies to evaluate the relationship between various engineering characteristics of VE systems and the specific types of sickness symptoms that are produced from exposure to them

High Quality, Transferable Graphene Grown on Single Crystal Cu(111) Thin Films on Basal-Plane Sapphire

The current method of growing large-area graphene on Cu surfaces (polycrystalline foils and thin films) and its transfer to arbitrary substrates is technologically attractive. However, the quality of graphene can be improved significantly by growing it on single-crystal Cu surfaces. Here we show that high quality, large-area graphene can be grown on epitaxial single-crystal Cu(111) thin films on reusable basal-plane sapphire (alpha-Al2O3(0001)) substrates and then transferred to another substrate. While enabling graphene growth on Cu single-crystal surfaces, this method has the potential to avoid the high cost and extensive damage to graphene associated with sacrificing bulk single-crystal Cu during graphene transfer.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Configural Scoring of Simulator Sickness, Cybersickness and Space Adaptation Syndrome: Similarities and Differences?

From a survey of ten U.S. Navy flight simulators a large number (N > 1,600 exposures) of self-reports of motion sickness symptomatology were obtained. Using these data, scoring algorithms were derived, which permit examination of groups of individuals that can be scored either for 1) their total sickness experience in a particular device; or, 2) according to three separable symptom clusters which emerged from a Factor Analysis. Scores from this total score are found to be proportional to other global motion sickness symptom checklist scores with which they correlate (r = 0.82). The factors that surfaced from the analysis include clusters of symptoms referable as nausea, oculomotor disturbances, and disorientation (N, 0, and D). The factor scores may have utility in differentiating the source of symptoms in different devices. The present chapter describes our experience with the use of both of these types of scores and illustrates their use with examples from flight simulators, space sickness and virtual environments

The psychological science accelerator's COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

The psychological science accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges

The Psychological Science Accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data