Previous research has shown that exposure to immersive virtual nature environments is able to induce positive affective and physiological effects. However, research on the effects on cognitive performance is scarce. Additionally, the effects of virtual nature exposure compared to a virtual control environment with a comparable amount of virtual objects have not been examined so far. Therefore, we conducted an experiment with 27 participants to study the psychological effects of such exposure. The virtual nature consisted of a 3D model of a typical forest environment, whereas the control environment was an abstract replication of the virtual forest environment. In both environments, a virtual wooden cart was used to transport the users from the start to the end of the virtual road. The typical background noise of moving such a cart was integrated into both environments as well. In addition, the virtual nature environment included typical forest sounds in the background, whereas the control condition did not have such background sounds. Both environments were compared with regard to their effects on cognitive performance (using trail making tests (TMTA, TMTB, and TMTB-A) as well as digit span forward and digit span backward tests), perceived restorativeness, mood, stress, sense of presence, and simulator sickness. The results showed that in comparison to the control environment, exposure to the virtual nature resulted in significantly higher cognitive performance, higher perceived restorativeness, higher positive affect, higher sense of presence, lower perceived stress, and lower simulator sickness.

Previous research has shown the positive effects of exposure to real and virtual nature. To investigate how such benefits might generalize to ever-more-prevalent virtual workplaces, we examined the effects of the absence or presence of virtual plants in an office environment in Virtual Reality (VR) on users’ cognitive performance and psychological well-being. The results of our user study with 39 participants show that in the presence of virtual plants, participants performed significantly better in both short-term memory and creativity tasks. Furthermore, they reported higher psychological well-being scores, including positive affect and attentive coping, whilst reporting lower feelings of anger and aggression after exposure to virtual plants in VR. The virtual office with plants was also perceived as more restorative and induced a higher sense of presence. Overall, these results highlight how the presence of virtual plants in VR can have positive influences on users, and therefore, constitute important design considerations when developing future working and learning spaces.

Background: Falls have high socioeconomic costs. Information and communication technologies may support provision and monitoring of multisensory (MSR) physiotherapy programmes. The HOLOBalance platform used augmented reality holograms to provide patient-centred, individualised MSR.Objectives: To determine the platform’s safety, acceptability and feasibility, investigate functional gait and dynamic balance benefits and provide data for a definitive trial.Design and setting: Single-blinded pilot randomised controlled feasibility study. Interventions were conducted at clinical sites or participants’ homes in three European countries.Participants: Community-dwelling older adults (median age 73 years; 64.2% female) at risk of falls were enrolled (May 2020-August 2021).Methods: Participants were randomised to an 8-week clinic or home-based telerehabilitation MSR or OTAGO (control group) programme. Compliance, satisfaction, and adverse events determined feasibility. Clinical outcomes, assessed (blinded) within one-week prior to and post-intervention, included functional gait assessment (FGA), Mini BESTest and cognitive function.Results: Randomisation to completion rate was 76.15% with 109 participants recruited (n = 289 screened). Drop-out rate was similar between groups. Adverse events were reported (n = 3) in the control group. Sixty-nine percent would recommend the HOLOBalance intervention. Findings were similar for the home and clinic-based arms of each intervention; data was combined for analysis. FGA (95%CI [1.63, 4.19]) and Mini-BESTest (95%CI [1.46, 3.93]) showed greater improvement in the HOLOBalance group with a clinically meaningful change of 4/30 noted for the FGA.Conclusions: HOLObalance was feasible to implement and acceptable to older adults at risk of falls, with FGA and Mini-BEST improvements exceeding those for the OTAGO programme. A definitive trial is warranted.

Experiencing the emotion of awe has been associated with improvements in psychological wellbeing. This emotion can be systematically elicited in laboratory settings and immersive virtual reality (VR) has been shown effective for this purpose. In this work, we exposed 36 healthy participants to three immersive videos from natural and urban scenes (i.e., mountain, forest with waterfall, and city), and a 3D model of a neutral room as a baseline condition. These environments were compared in terms of self-reported levels of awe and clinically relevant aspects of psychological wellbeing, such as state depression and anxiety. In addition, we took the level of prior experience of the participants with VR into account and investigated whether the psychological effects hold for both novice and experienced VR users. The results suggest that exposure to all three immersive videos elevated the level of awe, reduced current states of depression, and increased positive affect compared to the baseline. We also discovered that, while the urban environment elicited the same amount of awe as both natural environments, only exposure to natural environments decreased current states of anxiety and negative affect. Finally, although experienced VR users had partly lower overall scores, prior experience did not reduce the relative benefits of exposure to immersive videos, as both experienced and novice users showed similar improvements compared to their respective baselines. Our findings can help guide future research and therapeutic applications that use immersive videos to harness the psychological benefits of experiencing awe.

Biophilic design aims to connect people to nature by incorporating natural elements such as plants in built environments. In immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, experiments have shown that, for instance, the presence of virtual plants in VR leads to higher cognitive performance and psychological well-being. However, it has not been investigated so far whether such effects extend to the performance of spatial interaction tasks such as path steering. In this paper, we explore the effects of the presence of virtual plants in an immersive virtual office environment on path steering performance in VR. For this purpose, we combined and replicated two previous studies in this field. The results of our study did not find an effect of the presence of virtual plants on steering time, as our participants performed all steering tasks in a similar amount of time in both biophilic and non-biophilic environments. We could, however, replicate one of the original studies on path steering in VR by Liu et al. and show that the steering time in our study also follows the extension of the steering law proposed in their work. Accordingly, we found not only a significant effect of the length ( $$p<.001$$ , effect size: partial eta squared $$=.93$$ ) and width ( $$p<.001$$ , effect size =.96) of the steering path, but also a significant effect of the path curvature ( $$p=.003$$ , effect size $$=.64$$ ) on the time needed for steering through the path. We also found significant effects of path latitude ( $$p<.001$$ , effect size $$=.57$$ ) and longitude ( $$p=.01$$ , effect size $$=.18$$ ) on steering time. Our findings challenge the previous research, which demonstrated the positive effects of biophilic design in VR on cognitive processes, and therefore, pave the path for future work to better understand the effects of biophilic design on users’ performance in VR.

The development of immersive media applications depends on structured processes early on to gather and prioritise user requirements. The processes for complex research projects with multiple partners often take place through internal co-creation sessions with consortium members rather than direct contact with end users. The effectiveness of these initial processes remains crucial as they drive the refinement of the application that will later be tested by end-users, developers and professional stakeholders. This paper examines the methodological challenges that arose during the collection of qualitative requirements and quantitative prioritisation within the PRESENCE project, a European project focusing on developing extended reality (XR) technologies to improve immersive communication. Combining action research with reflective analysis, this paper reveals several key challenges, including (1) difficulties in designing realistic yet visionary personas and aligning stakeholder interpretations, (2) translation issues from open-ended feedback to concrete and actionable requirements, and (3) cognitive overload and reduced engagement during the quantitative prioritisation of a large set of requirements. The research findings fit into general evaluation approaches for immersive media projects and provide recommendations to improve early-stage processes, which will benefit future interaction and storytelling design.