Recent research has attempted to identify methods to mitigate cybersickness and examine its aftereffects. In this direction, this paper examines the effects of cybersickness on cognitive, motor, and reading performance in VR. Also, this paper evaluates the mitigating effects of music on cybersickness, as well as the role of gender, and the computing, VR, and gaming experience of the user. This paper reports two studies. In the 1st study, 92 participants selected the music tracks considered most calming (low valence) or joyful (high valence) to be used in the 2nd study. In the 2nd study, 39 participants performed an assessment four times, once before the rides (baseline), and then once after each ride (3 rides). In each ride either Calming, or Joyful, or No Music was played. During each ride, linear and angular accelerations took place to induce cybersickness in the participants. In each assessment, while immersed in VR, the participants evaluated their cybersickness symptomatology and performed a verbal working memory task, a visuospatial working memory task, and a psychomotor task. While responding to the cybersickness questionnaire (3D UI), eye-tracking was conducted to measure reading time and pupillometry. The results showed that Joyful and Calming music substantially decreased the intensity of nausea-related symptoms. However, only Joyful music significantly decreased the overall cybersickness intensity. Importantly, cybersickness was found to decrease verbal working memory performance and pupil size. Also, it significantly decelerated psychomotor (reaction time) and reading abilities. Higher gaming experience was associated with lower cybersickness. When controlling for gaming experience, there were no significant differences between female and male participants in terms of cybersickness. The outcomes indicated the efficiency of music in mitigating cybersickness, the important role of gaming experience in cybersickness, and the significant effects of cybersickness on pupil size, cognition, psychomotor skills, and reading ability.

The use of electrotactile feedback in Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promising results for providing tactile information and sensations. While progress has been made to provide custom electrotactile feedback for specific interaction tasks, it remains unclear which modulations and rendering algorithms are preferred in rich interaction scenarios. In this paper, we propose a unified tactile rendering architecture and explore the most promising modulations to render finger interactions in VR. Based on a literature review, we designed six electrotactile stimulation patterns/effects (EFXs) striving to render different tactile sensations. In a user study (N=18), we assessed the six EFXs in three diverse finger interactions: 1) tapping on a virtual object; 2) pressing down a virtual button; 3) sliding along a virtual surface. Results showed that the preference for certain EFXs depends on the task at hand. No significant preference was detected for tapping (short and quick contact); EFXs that render dynamic intensities or dynamic spatio-temporal patterns were preferred for pressing (continuous dynamic force); EFXs that render moving sensations were preferred for sliding (surface exploration). The results showed the importance of the coherence between the modulation an the interaction being performed and the study proved the versatility of electrotactile feedback and its efficiency in rendering different haptic information and sensations.

While user's perception and performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial and time perception pertinent to the task's components and procedures. This paper examines the association between performance and perception and the potential effects that tactile feedback modalities could generate. This paper reports a user study (N=24), in which participants performed a standardized Fitts's law target acquisition task by using three feedback modalities: visual, visuo-electrotactile, and visuo-vibrotactile. The users completed 3 Target Sizes × 2 Distances × 3 feedback modalities = 18 trials. The size perception, distance perception, and (movement) time perception were assessed at the end of each trial. Performance-wise, the results showed that electrotactile feedback facilitates a significantly better accuracy compared to vibrotactile and visual feedback, while vibrotactile provided the worst accuracy. Electrotactile and visual feedback enabled a comparable reaction time, while the vibrotactile offered a substantially slower reaction time than visual feedback. Although amongst feedback types the pattern of differences in perceptual aspects were comparable to performance differences, none of them was statistically significant. However, performance indeed modulated perception. Significant action-specific effects on spatial and time perception were detected. Changes in accuracy modulate both size perception and time perception, while changes in movement speed modulate distance perception. Also, the index of difficulty was found to modulate all three perceptual aspects. However, individual differences appear to affect the magnitude of action-specific effects. These outcomes highlighted the importance of haptic feedback on performance, and importantly the significance of action-specific effects on spatial and time perception in VR, which should be considered in future VR studies.