Effect of motion cues on simulator sickness in a flight simulator

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of sensory conflict on the occurrence and severity of simulator sickness in a flight simulator. According to the sensory conflict theory, it is expected that providing motion cues that match the visual cues will reduce the discrepancy between the sensory inputs and thus reduce simulator sickness. We tested the effect of motion cues thorough a human subject experiment with a spherical type motion platform. After completing pre-experiment questionnaire including Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ) and Immersive Tendency Questionnaire (ITQ), two groups of participants conducted a flight simulation session with or without motion cues for 40 min. In the simulation session, participants were asked to fly through the gates sequentially arranged along the figure-eight shaped route. The Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) was filled out after the exposure to compare groups between with and without motion cues. Physiological data, including electrodermal activity, heart rate, blood volume pressure, and wrist temperature were also collected to find the relationship with perceived simulator sickness. The results showed that simulator sickness and disorientation significantly lowered in motion-based group. Also, nausea and oculomotor were marginally lower when motion cue was given. This study supports sensory conflict theory. Providing proper motion cue corresponding to the visual flow could be considered to prevent simulator sickness.