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Cybersickness – discomfort caused by virtual reality (VR) – remains a significant problem that negatively affects the user experience. Research on individual differences in cybersickness has typically focused on overall sickness intensity, but a detailed understanding should include whether individuals differ in the relative intensity of cybersickness symptoms. This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to explore whether there exist groups of individuals who experience common patterns of cybersickness symptoms. Participants played a VR game for up to 20 min. LPA indicated three groups with low, medium, and high overall cybersickness. Further, there were similarities and differences in relative patterns of nausea, disorientation, and oculomotor symptoms between groups. Disorientation was lower than nausea and oculomotor symptoms for all three groups. Nausea and oculomotor were experienced at similar levels within the high and low sickness groups, but the medium sickness group experienced more nausea than oculomotor. Characteristics of group members varied across groups, including gender, virtual reality experience, video game experience, and history of motion sickness. These findings identify distinct individual experiences in symptomology that go beyond overall sickness intensity, which could enable future interventions that target certain groups of individuals and specific symptoms. 

Cybersickness, or sickness induced by virtual reality (VR), negatively impacts the enjoyment and adoption of the technology. One method that has been used to reduce sickness is repeated exposure to VR, herein Cybersickness Abatement from Repeated Exposure (CARE). However, high sickness levels during repeated exposure may discourage some users from returning. Field of view (FOV) restriction reduces cybersickness by minimizing visual motion in the periphery, but also negatively affects the user's visual experience. This study explored whether CARE that occurs with FOV restriction generalizes to a full FOV experience. Participants played a VR game for up to 20 minutes. Those in the Repeated Exposure Condition played the same VR game on four separate days, experiencing FOV restriction during the first three days and no FOV restriction on the fourth day. Results indicated significant CARE with FOV restriction (Days 1-3). Further, cybersickness on Day 4, without FOV restriction, was significantly lower than that of participants in the Single Exposure Condition, who experienced the game without FOV restriction only on one day. The current findings show that significant CARE can occur while experiencing minimal cybersickness. Results are considered in the context of multiple theoretical explanations for CARE, including sensory rearrangement, adaptation, habituation, and postural control. 

Multiple tools are available to reduce cybersickness (sickness caused by virtual reality), but past research has not investigated the combined effects of multiple mitigation tools. Field of view (FOV) restriction limits peripheral vision during self-motion, and ample evidence supports its effectiveness for reducing cybersickness. Snap turning involves discrete rotations of the user's perspective without presenting intermediate views, although reports on its effectiveness at reducing cybersickness are limited and equivocal. Both mitigation tools reduce the visual motion that can cause cybersickness. The current study (N = 201) investigated the individual and combined effects of FOV restriction and snap turning on cybersickness when playing a consumer virtual reality game. FOV restriction and snap turning in isolation reduced cybersickness compared to a control condition without mitigation tools. Yet, the combination of FOV restriction and snap turning did not further reduce cybersickness beyond the individual tools in isolation, and in some cases the combination of tools led to cybersickness similar to that in the no mitigation control. These results indicate that caution is warranted when combining multiple cybersickness mitigation tools, which can interact in unexpected ways. 

Virtual reality users are susceptible to disorientation, particularly when using locomotion interfaces that lack self-motion cues. Environmental cues, such as boundaries defined by walls or a fence, provide information to help the user remain oriented. This experiment evaluated whether the type of boundary impacts its usefulness for staying oriented. Participants wore a head-mounted display and performed a triangle completion task in virtual reality by traveling two outbound path segments before attempting to point to the path origin. The task was completed with two teleporting interfaces differing in the availability of rotational self-motion cues, and within five virtual environments differing in the availability and type of boundaries. Pointing errors were highest in an open field without environmental cues, and lowest in a classroom with walls and landmarks. Environments with a single square boundary defined by a fence, drop-off, or floor texture discontinuity led to errors in between the open field and the classroom. Performance with the floor texture discontinuity was similar to that with navigational barriers (i.e., fence and drop-off), indicating that an effective barrier need not be a navigational impediment. These results inform spatial cognitive theory about boundary-based navigation and inform application by specifying the types of environmental and self-motion cues that designers of virtual environments should include to reduce disorientation in virtual reality. 

The number of people who own a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) has reached a point where researchers can readily recruit HMD owners to participate remotely using their own equipment. However, HMD owners recruited online may differ from the university community members who typically participate in VR research. HMD owners (n=220) and non-owners (n=282) were recruited through two online work sites-Amazon's Mechanical Turk and Prolific-and an undergraduate participant pool. Participants completed a survey in which they provided demographic information and completed measures of HMD use, video game use, spatial ability, and motion sickness susceptibility. In the context of the populations sampled, the results provide 1) a characterization of HMD owners, 2) a snapshot of the most commonly owned HMDs, 3) a comparison between HMD owners and non-owners, and 4) a comparison among online workers and undergraduates. Significant gender differences were found: men reported lower motion sickness susceptibility and more video game hours than women, and men outperformed women on spatial tasks. Men comprised a greater proportion of HMD owners than non-owners, but after accounting for this imbalance, HMD owners did not differ appreciably from non-owners. Comparing across recruitment platform, male undergraduates outperformed male online workers on spatial tests, and female undergraduates played fewer video game hours than female online workers. The data removal rate was higher from Amazon compared to Prolific, possibly reflecting greater dishonesty. These results provide a description of HMD users that can inform researchers recruiting remote participants through online work sites. These results also signal a need for caution when comparing in-person VR research that primarily enrolls undergraduates to online VR research that enrolls online workers. 

Teleporting is a popular interface for locomotion through virtual environments (VEs). However, teleporting can cause disorientation. Spatial boundaries, such as room walls, are effective cues for reducing disorientation. This experiment explored the characteristics that make a boundary effective. All boundaries tested reduced disorientation, and boundaries representing navigational barriers (e.g., a fence) were no more effective than those defined only by texture changes (e.g., flooring transition). The findings indicate that boundaries need not be navigational barriers to reduce disorientation, giving VE designers greater flexibility in the spatial cues to include.