Comparison of desktop, head mounted display, and six wall fully immersive systems using a stressful task

The goal of the current study was to investigate the effects of different virtual environment (VE) technologies on emotional arousal and task performance in a modified Stroop task presented under low- and high-stress conditions. Fifty-three participants were recruited from a college population. Reactivity to stressful VEs was examined in three representative VE systems from desktop to high-end fully immersive systems. The experiment was a 3 (desktop system, head mounted display (HMD), and six wall system) × 2 (high- and low-stressful VE) within subject design, with self-reported emotional arousal and valence, skin conductance, task performance, presence, and simulator sickness. Replicating previous studies, the fully immersive system induced the highest sense of presence and the HMD system elicited the highest amount of simulator sickness. Extending previous studies, the results showed that different technological platforms evoked unique response patterns. Our findings suggest that different VE systems may be appropriate for different scientific purposes when studying stress reactivity using emotionally evocative tasks.