The Effect of Virtual Environments on Stress Levels

Lausen, Patrick Bang Løyche ; Hagemann, Michelle ; Jensen, Jette Møller

4. term

Medialogy, Master

2019

2019-05-28

61

Mange mennesker oplever alvorlig stress. Dette projekt havde til formål at finde måder at mindske stress ved hjælp af virtuelle miljøer. Baggrundsarbejdet gennemgik, hvordan stress kan måles, og hvilke metoder der allerede bruges til at reducere den. Naturscener bruges ofte til at fremme afslapning, så studiet spurgte, hvilke elementer i et virtuelt miljø der hjælper mennesker med at slappe af. Tre forsøg sammenlignede to scener – et enkelt rum og en skov – mens deltagerne udførte Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), en tidsbegrænset hovedregneopgave, der er designet til at fremkalde stress. I det første forsøg var der ingen statistisk signifikant forskel mellem rummet og skoven, så nulhypotesen (at skovscenen ikke er bedre til at reducere stress) kunne ikke forkastes. MIST øgede dog stress i forhold til baseline-målinger. Efter forbedringer af scenerne fandt det andet forsøg igen ingen forskel. I det tredje forsøg blev der tilføjet lyd for at øge indlevelsen (hvor realistisk og opslugende scenen føles). Nulhypotesen kunne igen ikke forkastes på baggrund af p-værdierne, men færre målinger ændrede sig fra baseline, hvilket kan tyde på, at lyd hjælper med at reducere stress. Samlet viste studiet ikke en tydelig stressreducerende effekt af virtuel natur sammenlignet med et simpelt rum. Indlevelse kan have betydning, og den foreløbige effekt af lyd bør undersøges nærmere i fremtidig forskning.

Many people experience severe stress. This project set out to identify ways to lower stress using virtual environments. Background research reviewed how stress can be measured and which methods are already used to reduce it. Nature scenes are often used to promote relaxation, so the study asked which elements in a virtual environment help people relax. Three experiments compared two scenes—a plain room and a forest—while participants completed the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST), a timed mental arithmetic task designed to induce stress. In the first experiment, there was no statistically significant difference between the room and the forest, so the null hypothesis (that the forest scene was not better at reducing stress) could not be rejected. However, the MIST did raise stress compared with baseline measures. After improving the scenes, the second experiment again found no difference. In the third experiment, audio was added to increase immersion (how realistic and absorbing the scene feels). The null hypothesis again could not be rejected based on the p-values, but fewer measures changed from baseline, which may suggest that audio helps reduce stress. Overall, the study did not show a clear stress-reduction effect of virtual nature over a simple room. The level of immersion may matter, and the tentative effect of audio should be examined in future research.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]

stress ; virtual reality ; environments ; montreal imaging stress task

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