An Exploration into Vection During Virtual Helicopter Flight Using Varying Levels of Active Control and Passive Control

The sensation of self-motion, which is called vection, is a phenomenon that is traditionally measured in passive participants. Research on vection during active control is often done through subjective reports using single intensity stimuli. Herein, we investigated how varying difficulty levels of active control as well as passive control affects subjective vection intensity and objective physiological signals. Participants were visually and audibly immersed in a virtual environment wherein either they or an AI controlled a helicopter. Electrodermal activity and accelerations of the body core were recorded during flight. Participants rated the intensity of vection and object-motion for 3 sensory modalities after each trial. Marginally higher vection compared to object-motion ratings were found. Vection ratings were lightly affected by control difficulty due to weather conditions. Our results show that vection can be elicited during active and passive control activities and including objective measures could elevate our understanding of vection.