The effects of habituation and adding a rest-frame on experienced simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator

The aim of this article is to investigate the effect of a physical rest-frame, habituation and age on simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. Twenty-six young and 34 older adults completed a total of 12 drives in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator over two visits. A 2x2 crossover design was used to measure the effect of a rest frame that was added to the driving simulator on either the first or second visit. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire was used to measure simulator sickness symptoms. A significant decrease in simulator sickness was observed between the first and the second visit. Older adults reported more severe simulator sickness symptoms compared to younger participants. No effect of rest-frame could be found. Habituation appears to be the most effective method to reduce simulator sickness in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. More research is needed to investigate simulator sickness in patient groups.

Practitioner summary: Experiencing simulator sickness is a major problem across all types of simulators. The present experiment investigated the effect of a rest-frame, habituation and age on developing simulator sickness symptoms in an advanced mobility scooter driving simulator. Habituation appeared to be the most effective method to reduce simulator sickness.