Abstract

Stress and cognitive fatigue have become a pervasive problem, especially in Western society. Stress and cognitive fatigue can have deleterious effects not only on performance, but also on one's physical and mental health. This dissertation presents a study in which the aim is to investigate the effects of virtual nature on stress reduction and cognitive restoration. Specifically, this study assessed the effects of Immersion (Non-immersive, Semi-immersive, Fully-immersive) and Exploration (Passive vs Active) on stress reduction and cognitive restoration. Additionally, restoration from the most effective virtual nature environment was compared to that of taking an active coloring break. Eighty-three university students with normal color vision, depth perception and good visual acuity participated in this study. The overall findings of the study suggest that virtual nature is able to reduce stress and anxiety, generally the more immersive and interactive the better. Moreover, though both the those in the passive VR nature condition and those in the coloring condition reported a reduction in stress, only those in the passive VR nature condition exhibited the physiological changes indicative of stress reduction.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2019

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Smither, Janan

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology; Human Factors and Cognitive Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0007687

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0007687

Language

English

Release Date

8-15-2022

Length of Campus-only Access

3 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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