Exposure to virtual nature: the impact of different immersion levels on skin conductance level, heart rate, and perceived relaxation

TY - JOUR

T1 - Exposure to virtual nature: the impact of different immersion levels on skin conductance level, heart rate, and perceived relaxation

AU - Knaust, Thiemo

AU - Felnhofer, Anna

AU - Kothgassner, Oswald D.

AU - Höllmer, Helge

AU - Gorzka, Robert Jacek

AU - Schulz, Holger

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/9

Y1 - 2022/9

N2 - It is generally accepted that natural environments reduce stress and improve mood. Since access to natural environments is sometimes limited, virtual natural environments, especially monoscopic 360° nature videos, offer a viable alternative. However, it remains unclear whether presenting monoscopic 360° nature videos via a head-mounted display (HMD) or a PC monitor results in larger relaxation effects. Therefore, this study examined whether a monoscopic 360° beach video presented with an HMD is significantly more relaxing than the same video presented via a PC screen, or no video at all (control condition), in altering skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR), and perceived relaxation. Overall, 102 adults (40.2% females, age range 19–62 years) participated in a counterbalanced, randomized, controlled, within-subject experiment. All participants were subjected to three stressors comprising different mental arithmetic tasks, followed by three different recovery phases (HMD, PC, control). For SCL, the results showed a significantly larger decrease in the HMD and PC than in the control condition, but no significant differences between the HMD and PC condition. For HR, there were no significant differences between the recovery conditions. However, the HMD condition was rated significantly more relaxing than the other conditions, with no significant differences between the PC and control condition. Exploratory analyses showed that these results were not moderated by the participants’ age, gender, or technology anxiety. Overall, the psychophysiological results showed no significant benefit favoring the HMD over PC condition, although the self-reported relaxation ratings did. Future studies are warranted to clarify this divergence.

AB - It is generally accepted that natural environments reduce stress and improve mood. Since access to natural environments is sometimes limited, virtual natural environments, especially monoscopic 360° nature videos, offer a viable alternative. However, it remains unclear whether presenting monoscopic 360° nature videos via a head-mounted display (HMD) or a PC monitor results in larger relaxation effects. Therefore, this study examined whether a monoscopic 360° beach video presented with an HMD is significantly more relaxing than the same video presented via a PC screen, or no video at all (control condition), in altering skin conductance level (SCL), heart rate (HR), and perceived relaxation. Overall, 102 adults (40.2% females, age range 19–62 years) participated in a counterbalanced, randomized, controlled, within-subject experiment. All participants were subjected to three stressors comprising different mental arithmetic tasks, followed by three different recovery phases (HMD, PC, control). For SCL, the results showed a significantly larger decrease in the HMD and PC than in the control condition, but no significant differences between the HMD and PC condition. For HR, there were no significant differences between the recovery conditions. However, the HMD condition was rated significantly more relaxing than the other conditions, with no significant differences between the PC and control condition. Exploratory analyses showed that these results were not moderated by the participants’ age, gender, or technology anxiety. Overall, the psychophysiological results showed no significant benefit favoring the HMD over PC condition, although the self-reported relaxation ratings did. Future studies are warranted to clarify this divergence.

KW - 360° Nature video

KW - 360° Videos

KW - Immersion

KW - Monoscopic 360° video

KW - Virtual nature

KW - Virtual relaxation

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118881507&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10055-021-00595-2

DO - 10.1007/s10055-021-00595-2

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85118881507

VL - 26

SP - 925

EP - 938

JO - VIRTUAL REAL-LONDON

JF - VIRTUAL REAL-LONDON

SN - 1359-4338

ER -