Immersive Virtual Reality Field Trips Facilitate Learning About Climate Change

Effects of Immersion on Knowledge Gain and Cognitive Load in Additive Manufacturing Process Education

Although the additive manufacturing (AM) market continues to grow, industries face barriers to AM adoption due to a shortage of skilled designers in the workforce that can apply AM effectively to meet this demand. This shortage is attributed to the high cost and infrastructural requirements of introducing high- barrier-to-entry AM processes such as powder bed fusion (PBF) into in-person learning environments. To meet the demands for a skilled AM workforce, it is important to explore other mediums of AM education, such as computer-aided instruction (CAI) and virtual reality (VR), which can increase access to hands-on learning experiences for inaccessible AM processes. However, limited work compares virtual and physical AM instruction or explores how the differences in immersion and presence between mediums can affect the knowledge gained and the mental effort exerted when learning about different AM processes. To address this gap in the literature, this research evaluates the use of CAI, VR, and in-person instruction in AM process education when learning about material extrusion (ME) and PBF. Our findings show that the differences in immersion and presence between CAI, VR, and in-person instruction do not have a statistically significant effect when learning about ME, but do have a significant effect when learning about PBF. Specifically, we found that VR generally yields equivalent effects in knowledge gain and cognitive load to in-person PBF education while offering advantages in both metrics over CAI learning. The findings from this work thus have significant implications for using VR as an alternative to in-person training to improve designer development in process-centric AM education of typically high-barrier-to-entry AM processes.

How Cognitive Absorption Influences Responses to Immersive Narratives of Environmental Threats

Nongovernment organizations are increasingly leveraging the metaverse and its suite of extended reality technologies, such as 360° video and virtual reality, to immerse audiences in situations depicting environmental threats. The promise of immersive storytelling as a conservation tool is predicated on the verisimilitude of the mediated experience, with exposure to environmental threats in immersive video akin to in vivo exposure. However, the psychological mechanisms explaining users' environmental responses to immersive stories remain ambiguous. In three controlled laboratory experiments, we examined unique properties (e.g., interactivity and modality) of immersive technologies vis-à-vis environmental stories and their influence on proenvironmental outcomes. Study 1 (N = 48) implemented a two-condition (interactivity: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment, showing that interactive 360° video significantly influenced attitudes through the mechanism of cognitive absorption. A 2 (interactivity: high/low) × 2 (distance: proximal/distant) between-subjects experiment (study 2; N = 76) further supported this mediation model by showing the mediating effects of cognitive absorption on attitudes and threat perceptions toward both distant and proximal threats. Lastly, study 3 (N = 68) replicated the mediating effects of cognitive absorption across 360° video modalities, though head-mounted display-based, rather than screen-based, 360° videos only significantly increased attitudes and absorption when threats were proximal. We discuss the results' practical and theoretical implications and propose avenues for future research. Moreover, we outline important considerations for environmental organizations seeking to leverage metaverse platforms for communicating environmental threats.

Examining the exposure-reception-retention link in realistic communication environments via VR and eye-tracking: The VR billboard paradigm

Exposure is key to message effects. No effects can ensue if a health, political, or commercial message is not noticed. Yet, existing research in communication, advertising, and related disciplines often measures 'opportunities for exposure' at an aggregate level, whereas knowing whether recipients were 'actually exposed' to a message requires a micro-level approach. Micro-level research, on the other hand, focuses on message processing and retention, takes place under highly controlled laboratory conditions with forced message exposure, and largely ignores how recipients attend selectively to messages under more natural conditions. Eye-tracking enables us to assess actual exposure, but its previous applications were restricted to screen-based reading paradigms lacking ecological validity or field studies that suffer from limited experimental control. Our solution is to measure eye-tracking within an immersive VR environment that creates the message delivery and reception context. Specifically, we simulate a car ride down a highway alongside which billboards are placed. The VR headset (HP Omnicept Pro) provides an interactive 3D view of the environment and holds a seamlessly integrated binocular eye tracker that records the drivers' gaze and detects all fixations on the billboards. This allows us to quantify the nexus between exposure and reception rigorously, and to link our measures to subsequent memory, i.e., whether messages were remembered, forgotten, or not even encoded. An empirical study shows that incidental memory for messages differs based on participants' gaze behavior while passing the billboards. The study further shows how an experimental manipulation of attentional demands directly impacts drivers' gaze behavior and memory. We discuss the large potential of this paradigm to quantify exposure and message reception in realistic communication environments and the equally promising applications in new media contexts (e.g., the Metaverse).

Self-Guided Digital Intervention for Depression in Adolescents: Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy Study

BACKGROUND

Depression in adolescents is a large and growing problem; however, access to effective mental health care continues to be a challenge. Digitally based interventions may serve to bridge this access gap for adolescents in need of care. Digital interventions that deliver components of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have been shown to reduce symptoms of depression, and virtual reality (VR) may be a promising adjunctive component. However, research on these types of treatments in adolescents and young adults is limited.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of Spark (v1.0), a 5-week, self-guided, CBT-based digital program using a mobile app and VR experiences to target symptoms of depression in adolescents.

METHODS

A single-arm, open-label study of the Spark program was conducted with a community sample of 30 adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 21 years with self-reported moderate to severe depression symptoms. Participants completed a weekly depression assessment (Patient Health Questionnaire-8) in the app during the 5-week intervention period as well as web-based baseline, postintervention, and 1-month follow-up self-report assessments. The participants also completed a qualitative postintervention interview. For participants aged <18 years, caregivers completed assessments at baseline and postintervention time points. Feasibility outcomes included recruitment rate (the proportion of participants who enrolled in the study divided by the total number of participants screened for eligibility) and retention rate (the proportion of participants who completed postintervention assessments divided by the total number of participants who received the intervention). Acceptability outcomes included engagement with the program and quantitative and qualitative feedback about the program. Preliminary efficacy was evaluated based on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8.

RESULTS

The study recruitment (31/66, 47%) and retention (29/30, 97%) rates were high. Participants provided higher ratings for the ease of use of the Spark program (8.76 out of 10) and their enjoyment of both the mobile app (7.00 out of 10) and VR components (7.48 out of 10) of the program, whereas they provided lower ratings for the program's ability to improve mood (4.38 out of 10) or fit into their daily routines (5.69 out of 10). We observed a clinically and statistically significant reduction in depression scores at postintervention (mean difference 5.36; P<.001) and 1-month follow-up (mean difference 6.44; P<.001) time points.

CONCLUSIONS

The Spark program was found to be a feasible and acceptable way to deliver a self-guided CBT-focused intervention to adolescents and young adults with symptoms of depression. Preliminary data also indicated that the Spark program reduced the symptoms of depression in adolescents and young adults. Future studies should evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in an adequately powered randomized controlled trial.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04165681; https://classic.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04165681.

Expanding Nature's storytelling: extended reality and debiasing strategies for an eco-agency

Communication in sustainability and environmental sciences is primed to be substantially changed with extended reality technology, as the emergent Metaverse gives momentum to building an urgent pro-environmental mindset. Our work focuses on immersive econarratives, supported by virtual and augmented realities, and their potential to favor an improved relationship with the environment. Considering social aggregation dynamics and cognitive bias, this article intends to (1) make the case for a new environmental narrative; (2) position extended reality as privileged settings to sustain this narrative; and (3) suggest that this storytelling should be informed by Nature's empirical evidence, i.e., ecosystem data. We see this as a chance to think this Metaverse with an embedded environmental consciousness, informed by behavior-change research.

Exploring the Darkverse: A Multi-Perspective Analysis of the Negative Societal Impacts of the Metaverse

The Metaverse has the potential to form the next pervasive computing archetype that can transform many aspects of work and life at a societal level. Despite the many forecasted benefits from the metaverse, its negative outcomes have remained relatively unexplored with the majority of views grounded on logical thoughts derived from prior data points linked with similar technologies, somewhat lacking academic and expert perspective. This study responds to the dark side perspectives through informed and multifaceted narratives provided by invited leading academics and experts from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. The metaverse dark side perspectives covered include: technological and consumer vulnerability, privacy, and diminished reality, human-computer interface, identity theft, invasive advertising, misinformation, propaganda, phishing, financial crimes, terrorist activities, abuse, pornography, social inclusion, mental health, sexual harassment and metaverse-triggered unintended consequences. The paper concludes with a synthesis of common themes, formulating propositions, and presenting implications for practice and policy.

User Experience Evaluation in Shared Interactive Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) has served the entertainment industry all the way to world-leading museums in delivering engaging experiences through multisensory virtual environments (VEs). Today, the rise of the Metaverse fuels a growing interest in leveraging this technology, bringing along an emerging need to better understand the way different dimensions of VEs, namely social and interactive, impact overall user experience (UX). This between-subject exploratory field study investigates differences in the perceived and lived experience of 28 participants engaging, either individually or in dyads, in a VR experience comprising different levels of interactivity, i.e., passive or active. A mixed methods approach combining conventional UX measures, i.e., psychometric surveys and user interviews, as well as psychophysiological measures, i.e., wearable bio- and motion sensors, allowed for a comprehensive assessment of users' immersive and affective experiences. Results pertaining to the social dimension of the experience reveal that shared VR elicits significantly more positive affect, whereas presence, immersion, flow, and state anxiety are unaffected by the copresence of a real-world partner. Results pertaining to the interactive dimension of the experience suggest that the interactivity afforded by the VE moderates the effect of copresence on users' adaptive immersion and arousal. These results support that VR can be shared with a real-world partner not only without hindering the immersive experience, but also by enhancing positive affect. Hence, in addition to offering methodological directions for future VR field research, this study provides interesting practical insights into guiding VR developers toward optimal multiuser virtual environments.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Awareness of New Jersey Public High School Students about Concepts of Climate Change, including Environmental Justice

Increasing acknowledgement of climate change (CC) has encouraged various responses, such as education standard mandates. In 2021, New Jersey (NJ) became the first U.S. state to require K-12 CC education across subjects, effective fall 2022. This necessitated introductory science courses on CC to support high school (HS) curricula. Thus, NJ Safe Schools Program (NJSS) created a new course titled, "Introduction to HS Students to CC, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice (EJ)." Given that the COVID-19 pandemic continues (2020-2023 school years) and vaccination coverage varies, this course was developed and approved in an asynchronous online format. Its five modules cover environmental science, CC, natural disasters and extreme weather events, sustainability, including energy conservation and efficiency definitions, and EJ. A 20-question survey included at the end, modified/adapted from a larger nationwide U.S. Student Conservation Association (SCA) survey 2019-2020, examined the perspectives of HS students concerning CC. Selected volunteer NJ HS enlisted students (n = 82/128 finished) to pilot this course February-April 2022. Results such as average scores ≥90% suggested success regarding initial knowledge and awareness gained; for individual modules, two knowledge checks >80% and three knowledge checks >90%. The SCA survey results, overall and by region in NJ, highlighted how most students felt about CC and extreme weather events, plus issues such as EJ. This NJSS introductory course opened in July 2022 for NJ public county secondary school districts and comprehensive HS with approved career-technical education programs, and potentially elsewhere.

Harnessing virtual reality for management training: a longitudinal study

Purpose

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have been gaining popularity in training and development in many fields to promote embodied training. However, its adoption in management has been slow and rigorous empirical research to understand its impact on learning and retention is scarce. Thus, this paper aims to examine the benefits of VR technologies for management training.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a longitudinal experiment comparing VR platforms and a traditional video platform, this study examines two as yet unexplored benefits of VR technologies vis-à-vis management training – the cognitive outcome and affective reaction of the training experience over time.

Findings

This study finds that, for cognitive outcomes, immediate gains are similar across video and VR platforms, but subsequent knowledge retention is significantly higher for VR platforms. In terms of affective reaction, VR platforms generate significantly more enjoyment, which carries over to two weeks later, and is partially associated with higher knowledge retention.

Practical implications

This study has implications for management and human resource trainers and system designers interested in integrating VR for training and development purposes.

Originality/value

This study makes a unique contribution by unpacking the long-term benefits of an embodied training system, as well as identify a possible link between cognitive outcomes and affective reaction.

Extended reality as a means to enhance public health education

Technology has transformed the classroom and learning environments. From electronic whiteboards to tablet computers, educators now have access to a multitude of tools that enhance the learning experience. Educational technologies that rely on extended reality (XR) such as augmented and virtual reality are being used, or suggested for use, in various settings and often focus on technical fields such as medicine, dentistry, and aviation. Here, we propose that XR can be used in public health education to better prepare both undergraduate and graduate trainees for real world, complex public health scenarios that require public engagement, investigative skills, and critical decision making. Several opportunities for XR use are outlined that provide perspective on how XR can supplement traditional classroom instruction methods by providing an immersive, participatory training environment. XR offers an opportunity for public health students to gain confidence, have repeated simulated exposures in a safe and equitable environment, and build competency in critical functions they will likely perform as future public health professionals.

The Effects of Sensory Cues on Immersive Experiences for Fostering Technology-Assisted Sustainable Behavior: A Systematic Review

Games are consistently acknowledged as a powerful approach that can significantly impact people’s behavior towards living in a sustainable way. Sensory cues are regarded as influential factors in facilitating immersive experiences in gamified applications to foster sustainable behavior. As our perception of an environment is influenced not only by what we can see but also by additional sensory input such as sound and touch, additional sensory information can be part of the participant’s experience. This study systematically scrutinized game-based applications containing sensory cues to interpret current technology-assisted sustainable behavior development. This study provides a review of the impact of the sensory signals offered by video games, virtual reality, and augmented reality on pro-environmental behavioral intention. This research found that human senses can change the perception of immersion in multiple ways: visual (dimensions, angles, color), auditory (music, dialogue), and haptic, and these can affect sustainable behavior. Thus, we argue that multiple sensory modalities provide more opportunities to influence users to act sustainably. Based on the results, the theoretical contribution of this paper emphasizes the level of immersion, which is closely related to various sensory perceptions, and explains the correlation between them. In terms of industrial applications, it provides game designers, developers of VR and AR applications, and planners of sustainable education guidelines for the adoption of immersive scenarios.

A randomized trial testing the effectiveness of virtual reality as a tool for pro-environmental dietary change

This study investigates the impact of an efficacy-focused virtual reality (VR) intervention designed according to instructional design principles on eating behavior. In the preregistered intervention study, psychology students were randomly assigned to nine seminar blocks. Employing parallel design, they were allocated to either a VR intervention to experience the environmental impact of food behavior (1) and alter the future by revising food choices (2) or to a passive control condition. The data from 123 participants (78% female, mean age 25.03, SD = 6.4) were analyzed to investigate the effect of the VR intervention on dietary footprint measured from 1 week before to 1 week after the intervention. The VR intervention decreased individual dietary footprints (d = 0.4) significantly more than the control condition. Similarly, the VR condition increased response efficacy and knowledge to a larger extent compared to the control. For knowledge, the effect persisted for 1 week. The VR intervention had no impact on intentions, self-efficacy, or psychological distance. Additional manipulation of normative feedback enhanced self-efficacy; however, manipulation of geographical framing did not influence psychological distance. This research received no financial support from any funding agency and was registered on 15/09/2021 at Open Science Foundation with the number 10.17605/OSF.IO/2AXF3.

COVID Academic Pandemic: Techno Stress Faced by Teaching Staff for Online Academic Activities

This paper analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of the teachers, specifically the techno stress arising in them as a result of issues faced by them in the use of technology when they conduct the online academic activities. It aims to assess the major factors related to the online teaching that specifically adds to techno stress on the teachers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Finally, the study aims to provide suggestions to the policymakers and the management of the universities so that the effect of the COVID-19's on teachers' mental health and the related techno stress can be reduced. This paper is a literature review of the articles on the notion of techno stress on teachers and their mental health by searching the related articles with these terminologies using the renowned search engines of Google Scholar and Web of Science. A combination of the terms such as Coronavirus, COVID-19, mental health, psychological distress, techno stress, and online teaching were used in the article search for the review. The literature has suggested that the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected the mental health of the employees in general and specifically, the teachers who are engaged in online academic activities and teaching in the universities. The paper has identified a few factors that are the cause of the techno stress and provides recommendations for the university management and the policy makers for minimizing their negative impact on the teachers, in terms of the techno stress and their mental health. Coronavirus is a new strain of the viruses that has badly engulfed the entire population of the world. It is even now badly rising and causing deaths while this article is in the writing phase. The article has addressed the mental health concerns of the university teachers as they are now working from home using ICT for delivering the lectures and conducting the online teaching and learning activities for the students at their universities. This is a matter of grave importance now and requires immediate attention. Hence, this article broadens the scope of the research on the corona virus and its impact on the university teachers.

Remote iVR for Nutrition Education: From Design to Evaluation

While different crowdsourcing platforms promote remote data collection, experiments in the immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) research community are predominantly performed in person. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has forced researchers in different disciplines, including iVR, to seriously consider remote studies. In this paper, we present a remote study using the Immersive Virtual Alimentation and Nutrition (IVAN) application, designed to educate users about food-energy density and portion size control. We report on the results of a remote experiment with 45 users using the IVAN app. In IVAN, users actively construct knowledge about energy density by manipulating virtual food items, and explore the concept of portion size control through hypothesis testing and assembling virtual meals in iVR. To explore the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using an interactive health-related application for nutrition education, two conditions were devised (interactive vs. passive). The results demonstrate the feasibility of conducting remote iVR studies using health-related applications. Furthermore, the results also indicate that regardless of level of interactivity learners significantly improved their knowledge about portion size control after using the IVAN (p &lt; 0.0001). Adding interactivity, however, suggests that the perceived learning experience of users could be partially affected. Learners reported significantly higher scores for immediacy of control in the interactive condition compared to those in the passive condition (p &lt; 0.05). This study demonstrates the feasibility of conducting an unsupervised remote iVR experiment using a complex and interactive health-related iVR app.

Benefits of Taking a Virtual Field Trip in Immersive Virtual Reality: Evidence for the Immersion Principle in Multimedia Learning

This study describes and investigates the immersion principle in multimedia learning. A sample of 102 middle school students took a virtual field trip to Greenland via a head mounted display (HMD) or a 2D video as an introductory lesson within a 6-lesson inquiry-based climate change intervention. The HMD group scored significantly higher than the video group on presence (d = 1.43), enjoyment (d = 1.10), interest (d = .57), and retention in an immediate (d = .61) and delayed posttest (d = .70). A structural equation model indicated that enjoyment mediated the pathway from instructional media to immediate posttest, and interest mediated the pathway from instructional media to delayed posttest score, indicating that these factors may play different roles in the learning process with immersive media. This work contributes to the cognitive affective model of immersive learning, and suggests that immersive lessons can have positive longitudinal effects for learning.

Virtual farm tours-Virtual reality glasses and tablets are suitable tools to provide insights into pig husbandry

Apart from improving husbandry conditions and animal welfare, there is a clear public demand to increase transparency in agricultural activities. Personal farm tours have shown to be appreciated by citizens but are limited in their impact because of hygiene requirements and accessibility. Virtual farm tours are a promising approach to overcome these limitations but evidence on their perceptions is missing. This study analyzes how a virtual farm tour is perceived by showing participants (n = 17) a 360-degree video of a conventional pig fattening pen on a tablet and via virtual reality (VR) glasses. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to analyze perceptions and level of immersion and to elicit differences between media devices. Participants' perception of the pig fattening pen was rather poor and depended on the recording perspective as well as on the media device. However, housing conditions were perceived more positively compared to the image participants had in mind prior to the study, and thus the stable was considered as a rather positive example. Participants described virtual farm tours as suitable tool to improve transparency and information transfer and to gain insights into husbandry conditions. They appreciated the comfortable and entertaining character of both media devices and named various possibilities for implementation. However, VR glasses were favored regarding the higher realistic and entertaining value, while the tablet was considered beneficial in terms of usability. The presentation of video sequences without additional explanations about the farm or the housing conditions were claimed insufficient to give an adequate understanding of the seen content.

Becoming nature: effects of embodying a tree in immersive virtual reality on nature relatedness

The potential of using immersive virtual reality (iVR) technologies to enhance nature relatedness by embodying non-human beings, such as plants or animals, is only sparsely researched. To contribute to this emerging research field we conducted an experimental study (N = 28) that compared the effects of the viewing condition (iVR or desktop) while embodying a tree on nature relatedness, perspective-taking and, as a control, on perceived immersion. A mixed-method approach employing quantitative and qualitative questions was used. Our results showed that irrespective of condition allocation, the more immersed participants felt in their experience, the greater they reported increased levels of nature relatedness (r = 0.42, p < .05). While our quantitative data did yield a difference in immersion levels between the viewing condition (iVR vs. video, t(26) = 2.05, p = .05, d = .50) that did not translate into a stronger experimental effect of the iVR condition on nature relatedness (F_Interaction(1,26) < 1). Regarding perspective taking, no significant differences between both groups emerged in the number of users who self-reported having fully taken on the perspective of the tree, (χ²(1) = 2.33, p = .127). However, only participants from the iVR group described their experience from a first-person perspective, suggesting a higher level of identification with the tree. This matches the observation that only those participants also reported self-reflective processes of their own role as a human being towards nature. Our results support previous research suggesting that experiencing nature via immersive VR in itself does not seem to suffice for creating an effect on nature relatedness. However, we observed that a higher perceived level of immersion for participants experiencing the embodiment of a tree in the iVR condition provoked reflective processes on one's own role towards nature more strongly. We discuss the role of immersion and further factors to explain these differences and suggest steps for future research settings to help understand the beneficial potential of using immersive VR for nature relatedness.

Immersive Learning Design for Technology Education: A Soft Systems Methodology

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is a globalized trend of equipping students to facilitate technological and scientific developments. Among STEM education, technology education (TE) plays a significant role in teaching applied knowledge and skills to create and add value to systems and products. In higher education, the learning effectiveness of the TE assisted by the immersive technologies is an active research area to enhance the teaching quality and learning performance. In this study, a taught subject of radio frequency identification (RFID) assisted by using mixed reality technologies in a higher education institution was examined, while the soft systems methodology (SSM) was incorporated to evaluate the changes in learning performance. Under the framework of SSM, stakeholders’ perceptions toward immersive learning and RFID education are structured. Thus, a rich picture for teaching activities is established for subject control, monitoring, and evaluation. Subsequently, the design of TE does not only satisfy the students’ needs but also requirements from teachers, industries, and market trends. Finally, it is found that SSM is an effective approach in designing courses regarding hands-on technologies, and the use of immersive technologies improves the learning performance for acquiring fundamental knowledge and application know-how.

After the virtual flood: Risk perceptions and flood preparedness after virtual reality risk communication

Many individuals experience problems understanding and preparing for low-probability/high-impact risk, like natural disasters and pandemics – unless they experience these events, yet then it is often too late to avoid damages. Individuals with recent disaster risk experience are, on average, better prepared. This seems to be mediated through emotions and a better understanding of the consequences. In this study, we use immersive virtual reality (VR) technology to examine whether a simulated disaster can stimulate people to invest in risk reducing measures in the context of flooding, which is one of the deadliest and most damaging natural disasters in the world. We investigate the possibility to boost risk perception, coping appraisal, negative emotions and damage-reducing behavior through a simulated flooding experience. We find that participants who experienced the virtual flood invest significantly more in the flood risk investment game than those in the control group. The investments in the VR treatment seem to decrease after four weeks but not significantly so.

Visualizing a New Sustainable World: Toward the Next Generation of Virtual Reality in the Built Environment

What is the future of virtual reality (VR) in the built environment? As work becomes increasingly distributed across remote and hybrid forms of organizing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to rethink how we use the set of collaborative technologies to move toward a sustainable world. We propose a new vision of VR as a discipline-agnostic platform for an interdisciplinary integration of the allied design, social, and environmental disciplines to address emerging challenges across the building sectors. We build this contribution through the following steps. First, we contextualize VR technologies within the changing digital landscape and underlying tensions in the built environment practices. Second, we characterize the difficulties that have arisen in using them to address challenges, illustrating our argument with leading examples. Third, we conceptualize VR configurations and explore underlying assumptions for their use across disciplinary scenarios. Fourth, we propose a vision of VR as a discipline-agnostic platform that can support built environment users in visualizing preferred futures. We conclude by providing directions for research and practice.

Impact of Virtual Reality on Student Motivation in a High School Science Course

It is essential to expose students to real situations in science courses, to experience how classroom concepts are reflected in the real world. However, the materials and methods available are not always very adequate; for example, chemistry courses involve the supervision of reagents to avoid risky situations, in addition to the costs, logistics of preparing materials, and possible adverse environmental factors. As an alternative solution, the following experience was carried out using virtual reality (VR) equipment, with very realistic applications that allowed 304 fourth semester high school students to have an immersive, interactive, and contextualized experience of the disciplinary contents. The students were asked about their perception regarding the motivation and acceptance of the use of virtual reality. The results were 72% positive for attention, 61% positive for relevance, 64% positive for trust, and 71% positive for satisfaction. Also, they mentioned their intention to continue using this resource and create lines of research to study the different aspects that could form a disciplinary proposal for an entire course based on virtual reality.

How Prior Knowledge Affects Visual Attention of Japanese Mimicry and Onomatopoeia and Learning Outcomes: Evidence from Virtual Reality Eye Tracking

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, “achieving inclusive and quality education for all”, foreign language learning has come to be seen as a process of integrating sustainable development into the socio-cultural aspects of education and learning. The aim of this study was to employ virtual reality (VR) eye tracker to examine how students with different levels of prior knowledge process visual behaviors for Japanese Mimicry and Onomatopoeia (MIO) while learning Japanese as a second foreign language. A total of 20 students studying at the Department of Applied Japanese at the university of Southern Taiwan were recruited. Based on the Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT) level, 20 participants were divided into high prior knowledge group (levels N1–N3) with 7 participants, and low prior knowledge group (level N4 or below) with 13 participants. The learning stimuli materials were created by Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) development tool to design a 3D virtual MIO paradise, including 5 theme amusement parks. Through a VR eye tracker, participants’ visual behaviors were tracked and recorded based on 24 different regions of interest (ROIs) (i.e., ROI1–ROI24). This was done to discuss the distribution of visual attention in terms of different ROIs of each theme amusement park based on four eye movement indicators, including latency of first fixation (LFF), duration of first fixation (DFF), total fixation durations (TFD), and fixation counts (FC). Each ROI of the two groups were then compared. In addition, a heat zone map was also generated to show the overall visual distribution of each group. After the experiment, based on the eye movement indicators and test scores in the pre-test and post-test phases, statistical analysis was used to examine and evaluate the differences in visual attention and learning outcomes. The results revealed that the gaze sequences of the two prior knowledge groups gazing at the ROIs in theme parks were different, except for the gaze sequence in the circus theme park. Different prior knowledge groups exhibited differences in visual attention in the ROIs fixated on in each amusement park. Additionally, in terms of TFD and FC of different groups in each amusement park, there was no significant difference except in ROI10, ROI16, and ROI18. Moreover, after receiving cognitive comprehension processes introduced in the VR-simulated MIO scenes, students from both groups achieved higher post-test scores compared with pre-test scores, and such differences had statistical significance. In conclusion, the implications of VR eye movement analysis on developing students’ competence related to learning Japanese and cross-cultural aspects, compatible with sustainable development, were presented.

Effect of Virtual Reality Perspective-Taking on Related and Unrelated Contexts

Virtual reality perspective-taking (VRPT) experiences effectively increase both empathy and prosocial behaviors toward related social targets (e.g., cutting down a tree in virtual reality increases concern for the environment). This project tests the prediction that empathy is analogous to a muscle that increases with practice and can transfer to unrelated contexts instead of being a mental state that increases only for a specific context or target. This study examines the extent to which VRPT experiences can train empathic skills that are applied to unrelated social targets and contexts. Two thirds of the participants engaged in VRPT experiences either showing what it is like to become homeless or how ocean acidification affects the marine environment. A third of the participants were in the control condition and did not complete a VRPT task. Results replicate previous findings showing that VRPT tasks increase related context empathy and prosocial behaviors; however, the results on VRPTs effect on empathy and prosocial behaviors for unrelated contexts were mixed. The VRPT ocean acidification task was more effective at inducing empathy for the homeless, an unrelated social target, than the control condition, but the empathy-transfer effect did not occur from the homeless context to the ocean context. Replicating previous work, participants who experienced what it is like to become homeless signed a petition supporting the homeless at significantly higher rates than participants in the control condition. These findings show that transfer of empathy from one context to another is possible, but this transfer does not occur for all contexts.

Evidence-based communication on climate change and health: Testing videos, text, and maps on climate change and Lyme disease in Manitoba, Canada

Given the climate crisis and its cumulative impacts on public health, effective communication strategies that engage the public in adaptation and mitigation are critical. Many have argued that a health frame increases engagement, as do visual methodologies including online and interactive platforms, yet to date there has been limited research on audience responses to health messaging using visual interventions. This study explores public attitudes regarding communication tools focused on climate change and climate-affected Lyme disease through six focus groups (n = 61) in rural and urban southern Manitoba, Canada. The results add to the growing evidence of the efficacy of visual and storytelling methods in climate communications and argues for a continuum of mediums: moving from video, text, to maps. Findings underscore the importance of tailoring both communication messages and mediums to increase uptake of adaptive health and environmental behaviours, for some audiences bridging health and climate change while for others strategically decoupling them.

Connecting virtual reality and ecology: a new tool to run seamless immersive experiments in R

Virtual reality (VR) technology is an emerging tool that is supporting the connection between conservation research and public engagement with environmental issues. The use of VR in ecology consists of interviewing diverse groups of people while they are immersed within a virtual ecosystem to produce better information than more traditional surveys. However, at present, the relatively high level of expertise in specific programming languages and disjoint pathways required to run VR experiments hinder their wider application in ecology and other sciences. We present R2VR, a package for implementing and performing VR experiments in R with the aim of easing the learning curve for applied scientists including ecologists. The package provides functions for rendering VR scenes on web browsers with A-Frame that can be viewed by multiple users on smartphones, laptops, and VR headsets. It also provides instructions on how to retrieve answers from an online database in R. Three published ecological case studies are used to illustrate the R2VR workflow, and show how to run a VR experiments and collect the resulting datasets. By tapping into the popularity of R among ecologists, the R2VR package creates new opportunities to address the complex challenges associated with conservation, improve scientific knowledge, and promote new ways to share better understanding of environmental issues. The package could also be used in other fields outside of ecology.

Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement—An Overview

As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.

Innovation for Positive Sustainable Legacy From Mega Sports Events: Virtual Reality as a Tool for Social Inclusion Legacy for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

There is significant interest in how sports events and their associated legacies could act as a platform to address global challenges and engender social change. The United Nations (UN) has acknowledged the important role that sport plays in supporting the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Olympic movement could be argued as central to that objective. Yet critical questions and concerns have been raised about the growing expenditure, viability, long term legacy, and impacts of mega sports events such as the Olympic Games. While much evidence has focused on the challenges of creating legacy for Olympic Games, there is considerably less literature on understanding the Paralympic context. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of innovation in creating legacy from MSEs and propose a theoretical and methodological plan for such research. Innovation, a key driver in organizational performance, is suggested as essential to defining, planning for and measuring legacy. We specifically examine the potential of virtual reality (VR) as a technological innovation which can help create a social inclusion legacy in the context of Paris 2024 Olympic/Paralympic Games. A conceptual model is developed, which identifies legacy as a "wicked problem", and this paper discusses the importance of innovation with regards to legacy, by suggesting a new application for VR technology in the context of legacy related to social inclusion. Information technology is a valuable facilitator of social inclusion for individuals with a disability. We specifically examine the potential of VR as a technological innovation which can help create legacy through influencing unconscious biases (symbolic ableism) toward diversity such as disability, gender, and race.

Designing a Virtual Arboretum as an Immersive, Multimodal, Interactive, Data Visualization Virtual Field Trip

This paper describes a virtual field trip application as a new type of immersive, multimodal, interactive, data visualization of a virtual arboretum. Deployed in a game engine, it is a large, open-world simulation, representing 100 hectares and ideal for use when free choice in navigation and high fidelity are required. Although the computer graphics are photorealistic, it is different and unique from other applications that use game art or 2D 360-degree video, because it reflects high information fidelity as a result of the domain expert review, and the integration of geographic information system (GIS) data with drone images. Combined in-game as a data visualization, it is ideal for generating past or future worlds, in addition to representations of the present. Fusing information from many data sources—terrain data, waterbody data, plant inventory, population density data, accurate plant models, bioacoustics, and drone images—its design process and methods could be repeated and used in a wide range of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications and devices. Results on presence, embodiment, emotions, engagement, and learning are summarized from prior pilot studies for context on use, and are relevant to schools, museums, arboretums, and botanical gardens interested in developing immersive informal learning applications.

An Exploratory Study on the Impact of Collective Immersion on Learning and Learning Experience

This paper aims to explore the impact of a collective immersion on learners’ engagement and performance. Building on Bandura’s social learning theory and the theory on the sense of presence, we hypothesise that collective immersion has a positive impact on performance as well as cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement. Ninety-three participants distributed in four conditions took part in the experiment. The four conditions manipulated the collective and individual dimensions of the learning environment as well as the high and low immersion of the learning material. The two conditions that offered a high immersion setting used two types of the novel immersive dome: a large one for collective immersion and a small one for individual use. All participants were presented with the same stimuli, an 8-min-long video of a virtual neighbourhood visit in Paris in the 18th century. The participants’ reactions were measured during and after the task. The learning outcome, as well as the cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement, were measured. Final results showed that collective immersion learning outcomes are not significantly different, but we find that collective immersion impacts the cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement of learners.

Virtual reality and the psychology of climate change

Researchers and practitioners have used virtual reality (VR) as a tool to understand attitudes and behaviors around climate change for decades. As VR has become more immersive, mainstream, and commercially available, it has also become a medium for education about climate issues, a way to indirectly expose users to novel stimuli, and a tool to tell stories about antienvironmental activity. This review explicates the relationship between VR and climate change from a psychological perspective and offers recommendations to make virtual experiences engaging, available, and impactful for users. Climate change is perhaps the most urgent global issue of our lifetime with irreversible consequences. It therefore requires innovative experiential approaches to teach its effects and modify attitudes in support of proenvironmental actions.

Using Virtual Reality to Stimulate Healthy and Environmentally Friendly Food Consumption among Children: An Interview Study

Since habits formed during childhood are predictive of adult behaviour, children form an important target group when it comes to improving healthy and environmentally friendly food consumption. To explore the potential of immersive virtual reality (VR) in this respect, we conducted a semi-structured interview study (N = 22) among children aged 6–13 years. This study consisted of two parts: (1) a VR experience and (2) a semi-structured interview to investigate (1) to what extent children are able to recall and understand information about the impact of food products on their health and the environment when provided to them as pop-ups in a VR supermarket; (2) what rational and emotional processes are triggered by this information; and (3) what children’s expectations about the real-life application and impact of the pop-ups are, and why. Interview data were analysed using the framework method. Results showed that although all participants were able to recall the information, only children from an average age of ten years old also understood the information. When participants understood the information, they were often aware of and felt sorry for their negative behavioural impact. Most participants expected their behaviour to positively change when imagining real-life application of the pop-ups.

Sudden challenges in teaching ecology and aligned disciplines during a global pandemic: Reflections on the rapid move online and perspectives on moving forward

The challenges facing higher education in response to COVID-19 are significant and possibly none more so than in ecology and aligned disciplines. Not only did most ecology lecturers have to rush lectures and tutorials online, but also laboratory and field classes. We reflect on our experience of this move and also consider those of 30 other ecology-aligned teaching academics to summarize the challenges faced in the move online early in 2020 and the developing plans for adapting ecology teaching and learning going into the 2020/21 academic year. The move online had the most significant impact on field classes, with more of these canceled than lectures or laboratory classes. Most respondents to an online poll also highlighted that many respondents (~45%) felt that ecology was more impacted by COVID-19 that even other STEM disciplines. The availability of technological solutions is key to moving forward and will hopefully enhance the teaching and learning experience for many beyond the current crisis.

Exploring the Use of Virtual Reality to Support Environmentally Sustainable Behavior: A Framework to Design Experiences

The current and future challenges of sustainable development require a massive transformation of habits and behaviors in the whole society at many levels. This demands a change of perspectives, priorities, and practices that can only result from the development of more aware, informed, and instructed communities and individuals. The field of design for sustainable behavior is answering this need through the development of products, systems, and services to support the change of people’s habits and decision-making processes. In this regard, Virtual Reality (VR) is a promising tool: it has already been explored to drive sustainable behavior change in several situations, through a wide range of devices, technologies, and modalities. This variety provides uncountable opportunities to designers, but it comes with a series of ethical, psychological, and technical questions. Hence, VR developers should be able to distinguish and identify possible strategies, delivering suitable solutions for each case study. In this work, we present a framework for the development of VR experiences to support sustainable behavior change, based on a systematic review. We consider the various features to manage and possible alternatives when creating a VR experience, linking them to the behavioral aspects that can be addressed according to the project’s aim. The framework will provide designers with a tool to explore and orient themselves towards possible sets of optimal choices generating tailored solutions.

COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have-as a whole-adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies.

COVID-19 as an opportunity to make field-based earth sciences and other similar courses easily accessible and affordable

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the need to have virtual field libraries accessible to users, which is possible if the field data are collected, archived, and processed to retain the actual field configurations. Therefore, we demonstrate the veracity of geological mapping with the help of Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) coupled with the traditional field site visits in Brunei Darussalam, SE Asia. We have selected two geological field sites that expose faulted Miocene sedimentary rocks. We visited these sites with geology undergraduates to teach them the field components of the courses on Field Mapping and Structural Geology at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam. A field assignment was given to students, which had to be submitted at the end of the fieldwork. The same exercise was repeated in the classroom with the UAV aided field data as virtual field exercises. The geological outcrop details were captured at kilometer and millimeter (mm) scales with both the static and dynamic mode of operations. The drone-based imagery was used to generate the 3D point clouds that used 67 oriented photographs to recreate the outcrop details. We discovered that both the traditional and drone based field data are highly useful to capture kilometer to mm scale details. Our results also revealed that students were very engaged during the virtual field exercises, and completed the field assignment with care, which was largely missing during the onsite field exercises. We think this is partly because of the relaxed state of the mind to grasp details while in a classroom environment where the hot sunny and humid weather of tropical Brunei was avoidable. The virtual field exercises have opened a new arena of field geology where the use of technology enhances the usability and accessibility of field based courses that are often disrupted because of various reasons. However, the traditional field visits should not be completely replaced by the virtual field.

Looking Into a Future Which Hopefully Will Not Become Reality: How Computer Graphics Can Impact Our Behavior-A Study of the Potential of VR

Humans tendency to engage in behaviors that are harmful to themselves, the environment, and the society has always been present on a personal and collective level. However, the concern for this kind of phenomena is increasing, as demographic and economic growth is amplifying its impact on people health, economies, and ecosystems. As a consequence, we have seen the rise of research fields as design for behavior change, with a growing interest in the use of tools as persuasive technologies, serious games and interactive systems to affect people awareness, attitude, and behavior. To these purposes, computer graphics and especially virtual reality (VR) has great potential since it can provide experiences to deepen users' understanding and emotional involvement regarding a variety of social and environmental issues. Here, we discuss the use of VR as a powerful, versatile, and cost-effective tool to deliver virtual experiences that inform and motivate users to change behavior. We describe and relate different aspects regarding sustainable behavior and VR experience design with respect to their potential to support behavior change.

Enhanced Attention Using Head-mounted Virtual Reality

Some evidence suggests that experiencing a given scenario using virtual reality (VR) may engage greater attentional resources than experiencing the same scenario on a 2D computer monitor. However, the underlying neural processes associated with these VR-related effects, especially those pertaining to current consumer-friendly head-mounted displays of virtual reality (HMD-VR), remain unclear. Here, two experiments were conducted to compare task performance and EEG-based neural metrics captured during a perceptual discrimination task presented on two different viewing platforms. Forty participants (20–25 years old) completed this task using both an HMD-VR and traditional computer monitor in a within-group, randomized design. Although Experiment I (n = 20) was solely behavioral in design, Experiment II (n = 20) utilized combined EEG recordings to interrogate the neural correlates underlying potential performance differences across platforms. These experiments revealed that (1) there was no significant difference in the amount of arousal measured between platforms and (2) selective attention abilities in HMD-VR environment were enhanced from both a behavioral and neural perspective. These findings suggest that the allocation of attentional resources in HMD-VR may be superior to approaches more typically used to assess these abilities (e.g., desktop/laptop/tablet computers with 2D screens).

The Effect of the Degree of Anxiety of Learners during the Use of VR on the Flow and Learning Effect

Virtual reality (VR) learning content that provides negative experiences makes learners anxious. Thus, experimental research was conducted to determine how anxiety felt by learners using VR impacts learning. To measure the learning effects, flow, a leading element of learning effects, was measured. Flow has a positive effect on learning as a scale of how immersed an individual is in the work he or she is currently performing. The evaluation method used the empirical recognition scale by Kwon (2020) and the six-item short-form State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) from Marteau and Becker (1992), which were used in the preceding study. The difference in flow between high- and low-anxiety groups was explored by measuring the degree the study participants felt using an Fire Safety Education Game based on VR that allows learners to feel the heat and wind of the fire site with their skin. As a result of the experiment, no difference in flow was found between the high- and low-anxiety groups that played the same VR game with cutaneous sensation. However, the high-anxiety group who played the VR game with cutaneous sensation showed a higher flow than the group that played the basic fire safety education VR game. Based on these results, the following conclusions were drawn: the closer to reality the VR learning and training system for negative situations is reproduced, the more realistically the learner feels the anxiety. In other words, the closer to reality the virtual environment is reproduced, the more realistically the learner feels the feelings in the virtual space. In turn, through this realistic experience, the learner becomes immersed in the flow more deeply. In addition, considering that flow is a prerequisite for the learning effect, the anxiety that learners feel in the virtual environment will also have a positive effect on the learning effect. As a result, it can be assumed that the more realistically VR is reproduced, the more effective experiential learning using VR can be.

Physiological State and Learning Ability of Students in Normal and Virtual Reality Conditions: Complexity-Based Analysis

Background

Education and learning are the most important goals of all universities. For this purpose, lecturers use various tools to grab the attention of students and improve their learning ability. Virtual reality refers to the subjective sensory experience of being immersed in a computer-mediated world, and has recently been implemented in learning environments.

Objective

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of a virtual reality condition on students’ learning ability and physiological state.

Methods

Students were shown 6 sets of videos (3 videos in a two-dimensional condition and 3 videos in a three-dimensional condition), and their learning ability was analyzed based on a subsequent questionnaire. In addition, we analyzed the reaction of the brain and facial muscles of the students during both the two-dimensional and three-dimensional viewing conditions and used fractal theory to investigate their attention to the videos.

Results

The learning ability of students was increased in the three-dimensional condition compared to that in the two-dimensional condition. In addition, analysis of physiological signals showed that students paid more attention to the three-dimensional videos.

Conclusions

A virtual reality condition has a greater effect on enhancing the learning ability of students. The analytical approach of this study can be further extended to evaluate other physiological signals of subjects in a virtual reality condition.

Virtual Reality Nature Experiences Involving Wolves on YouTube: Presence, Emotions, and Attitudes in Immersive and Nonimmersive Settings

As some nature experiences, such as viewing wild animals, may be difficult to implement in science education, immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies have become a promising tool in education. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the effectiveness of nature experiences in VR. In this study, 50 German university students (M = 23.76 years, SD = 3.73 years) from diverse disciplines were randomly assigned to an immersive (head-mounted display; Oculus Quest) or a nonimmersive setting (external computer screen; desktop computer) and individually watched two 360° videos from the social media site YouTube about wolves in their natural habitat. Besides measuring participants’ attitudes towards wolves, we investigated their feeling of presence in the virtual environments with the Spatial Presence Experience Scale (SPES) and the retrospective emotions of interest, joy, and fear with the Differential Affect Scale (M-DAS). The immersive head-mounted display induced higher levels of presence and interest compared to the nonimmersive external computer screen. While higher interest in the screen setting was associated with more positive attitudes towards wolves, such a correlation could not be found in the head-mounted display setting. Thus, our study found that immersive technology could induce interest in a nature experience related to the tested socio-scientific issue, even among people who did not already hold positive attitudes toward the issue. Overall, our findings suggest that 360° videos using immersive technology provide nature experiences with positive affective learning outcomes, even though the study focused on nature experiences in VR and was not an educational experience per se. As we were unable to assess the role of novelty of VR experiences, the application of VR technologies and its effects in larger teaching and learning settings needs to be evaluated in further studies.

The Silent Killer: Consequences of Climate Change and How to Survive Past the Year 2050

There is strong scientific consensus that the climate is drastically changing due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and that these changes are largely due to human behavior. Scientific estimates posit that by 2050, we will begin to experience some of the most damaging consequences of climate change, which will only worsen as the world becomes more populated and resources become scarcer. Considerable progress has been made to explore technological solutions, yet useful insights from a psychological perspective are still lacking. Understanding whether and how individuals and groups cope with environmental dilemmas is the first step to combatting climate change. The key challenge is how can we reduce a tendency to inaction and to understand the psychological obstacles for behavioral change that reduce climate change. We provide a social dilemma analysis of climate change, emphasizing three important ingredients: people need to recognize their own impact on the climate, there is conflict between self-interest and collective interests, and there is a temporal dilemma involving a conflict between short-term and longer-term interest. Acknowledging these features, we provide a comprehensive overview of psychological mechanisms that support inaction, and close by discussing potential solutions. In particular, we offer recommendations at the level of individuals, communities, and governments.

Analysis of Stress Factors for Female Professors at Online Universities

The aim of this paper is to analyze the primary stress factors female professors at online universities are exposed to. The technique used for the prospective and exploratory analysis was the Delphi method. Two rounds of consultations were done with fourteen judges with broad experience in health and safety at work and university teaching who reached a consensus of opinion regarding a list of nine psychosocial risk factors. Among the most important risk factors, mental overload, time pressure, the lack of a schedule, and emotional exhaustion were highlighted. These risk factors are related to the usage and expansion of information and communication technology (ICT) and to the university system itself, which requires initiating more research in the future in order to develop the intervention programs needed to fortify the health of the affected teachers and protect them from stress and other psychosocial risks.

Closed-Loop Attention Restoration Theory for Virtual Reality-Based Attentional Engagement Enhancement

Today, as media and technology multitasking becomes pervasive, the majority of young people face a challenge regarding their attentional engagement (that is, how well their attention can be maintained). While various approaches to improve attentional engagement exist, it is difficult to produce an effect in younger people, due to the inadequate attraction of these approaches themselves. Here, we show that a single 30-min engagement with an attention restoration theory (ART)-inspired closed-loop software program (Virtual ART) delivered on a consumer-friendly virtual reality head-mounted display (VR-HMD) could lead to improvements in both general attention level and the depth of engagement in young university students. These improvements were associated with positive changes in both behavioral (response time and response time variability) and key electroencephalography (EEG)-based neural metrics (frontal midline theta inter-trial coherence and parietal event-related potential P3b). All the results were based on the comparison of the standard Virtual ART tasks (control group, n = 15) and closed-loop Virtual ART tasks (treatment group, n = 15). This study provides the first case of EEG evidence of a VR-HMD-based closed-loop ART intervention generating enhanced attentional engagement.

I Can See Clearly Now: Episodic Future Thinking and Imaginability in Perceptions of Climate-Related Risk Events

Climate change is statistical, abstract and difficult to comprehend directly. Imagining a specific, personal episode where you experience consequences of climate change in the future (episodic future thinking) may bring climate change closer, thus increasing the perceived risk of climate-related risk events. We conducted an experiment to test whether episodic future thinking increased the perceived risk of climate-related risk events and climate change in general, as compared to thinking about the future in a general, abstract manner (semantic future thinking). We also tested whether this effect is moderated by how easy it is to imagine the specific climate-related risk event initially. Participants were randomly assigned to an episodic future thinking-condition or a semantic future thinking-condition, and two of the risk events in each condition were related to flooding (difficult to imagine) and two were related to extreme temperature (easy to imagine). The results show no main effect of episodic future thinking on perceived risk, and no interaction effect with imaginability. Contrary to expectations and earlier research, this suggests that episodic future thinking may not influence risk perception.