Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a widely employed method in orthopedics to evaluate patient well-being and measure the effectiveness of surgical interventions. Understanding the relationship between specific baseline factors and preoperative HRQoL can help clinicians identify patients at risk for low quality of life and thus, develop preventive strategies that adequately address individual patient needs. The objective was to assess associations between baseline factors and preoperative HRQoL in patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR). This study is part of a multicenter prospective Swiss cohort study that included patients undergoing ARCR between June 2020 and November 2021. Data were derived from baseline and surgery forms. HRQoL was assessed using the European Quality of Life 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire to calculate EQ-5D index and EQ VAS scores. Univariable and multivariable linear regression models examined associations between the 21 factors and preoperative HRQoL. Final models were determined using stepwise backward regression. A total of 973 included patients (mean age [SD], 57.3 [9.4] years; 611 men [63

Abstract BACKGROUND Assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a widely employed method in orthopedics to evaluate patient well-being and measure the effectiveness of surgical interventions. Understanding the relationship between specific baseline factors and preoperative HRQoL can help clinicians identify patients at risk for low quality of life and thus, develop preventive strategies that adequately address individual patient needs. The objective was to assess associations between baseline factors and preoperative HRQoL in patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair (ARCR).METHODS This study is part of a multicenter prospective Swiss cohort study that included patients undergoing ARCR between June 2020 and November 2021. Data were derived from baseline and surgery forms. We examined possible associations between 5 sociodemographic, 7 patient- and 9 injury-related factors and preoperative HRQoL. HRQoL was assessed using the European Quality of Life 5-Dimension 5-Level (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire to calculate EQ-5D index and EQ VAS scores. We followed the conceptual model of HRQoL for variable selection. Univariable and multivariable linear regression models examined associations between the 21 factors and preoperative HRQoL. Final models were determined using stepwise backward regression.RESULTS A total of 973 included patients (mean age [SD], 57.3 [9.4] years; 611 men [63%]) had a mean [SD] EQ-5D index and EQ VAS of 0.70 [0.23] and 68.7 [19.8], respectively. Being male (regression coefficient (β), 0.05; 95% CI [0.02–0.08]), having a higher age (β, 0.02; 95% CI [0.01–0.03]) and higher education levels (e.g., university, college: β, 0.11; 95% CI [0.06–0.16]) were associated with a higher EQ-5D index. Increased body mass index (β, -0.02; 95% CI [-0.04 to -0.01]) and worse sleep quality (β, -0.03; 95% CI [-0.04 to -0.03]) were associated with a lower EQ-5D index. Factors negatively associated with overall EQ VAS health were depression (e.g., moderate: β, -12.70; 95% CI [-16.18 to -9.21]), presence of at least one comorbidity (β, -3.71; 95% CI [-5.91 to -1.52]), and pain (β, -1.81; 95% CI [-2.36 to -1.26]).CONCLUSION Our results suggest that preoperative HRQoL is highly associated with sociodemographic and patient-related factors. Specifically addressing these factors may improve orthopedic care.

We studied the role of time in the experience of boredom and its relationship with various psychological states using virtual reality. Sixty-six participants visited nine virtual waiting rooms and evaluated their perception of time and psychological experiences, including boredom, exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, frustration, anger, unhappiness, spontaneous and deliberate mind-wandering, fantasy, and absorption. Results confirmed the relationship between boredom and time perception, showing that the higher the levels of boredom, the slower time seems to pass. However, manipulating time-related information via a slower/faster ticking clock did not affect boredom. We also found that boredom increased as participants progressed through the nine virtual rooms, and its affective characterization over time remained stable, while its cognitive characterization fluctuated. While boredom was consistently associated with exhaustion, restlessness, amotivation, and frustration, its relationship with fantasy, absorption, spontaneous mind-wandering and deliberate mind-wandering, evolved over time. These findings provide novel insights into the intricate and differentiated cognitive and affective consequences of being bored.

The protection of the natural environment requires ecologically sustainable behavior from current and future generations. Therefore, the present study aimed to conceive an immersive virtual reality experience to foster ecologically sustainable behavior in elementary schools. The findings were obtained in a three-stage iterative process using twelve qualitative interviews with experts from the fields of sustainability, psychology, didactics, and pedagogy, as well as elementary school teachers. The findings suggest that immersive virtual reality learning experiences should be embedded holistically into iterative learning loops to achieve transformative learning. Accordingly, we have developed a conceptual framework for designing transformative learning processes. This framework distinguishes between different learning phases and includes didactic tools, psychological success factors, and recommendations for action. These allow us to formulate concrete measures for each learning phase. In addition, we have conceived an immersive virtual reality experience suitable to reduce the psychological distance to the environmental changes caused by meat consumption. It shall illustrate how immersive virtual reality can be designed and embedded into holistic learning processes to achieve transformative learning.

Public speaking is a fundamental task in many professional or personal situations. At the same time, there is widespread fear of it, and it takes practice to present well. Previous studies suggest that Virtual Reality Public Speaking Training (VRPST) offers a promising opportunity for this. However, studies evaluating objective and subjective indicators are lacking so far, and valid control conditions are missing in previous studies. We aimed to overcome these drawbacks. In our experiment, participants (N = 42) had the task of presenting a card game to a four-person audience using five provided PowerPoint slides within a time limit of 5 minutes. They prepared either using VRPST or using common self-directed preparation (control condition), being randomly assigned to a condition. Both groups were instructed to prepare for the task at home and given 30 min to learn the rules of the game and present them using the slides. The control group was given an additional 30 min to prepare individually for the presentation task at home. The experimental group received an additional 30-min VRPST session. This training session was done without specific feedback and the presentation was repeated three times. The quality of the rule explanation, the audience-assessed presentation quality, and the subjects’ self-assessed presentation quality were measured. Our results indicate that the VRPST is effective. Subjects who completed the VRPST did a better job of explaining the rules and were better rated by the audience. In addition, the experimental subjects also tended to rate their presentation better in the VRPST condition. Further analyses of those participants who completed the VRPST show high technology acceptance. Our results show the VR training had a significant performance-enhancing effect and that participants would use the VRPST if it were available to them. It seems that practicing a presentation in VR is useful and even better than a conventional preparation.

Previous research has shown that immersive virtual reality (VR) is a suitable tool for visualizing the consequences of climate change. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether visualization in VR has a stronger influence on climate change awareness and environmental attitudes compared to traditional media. Furthermore, it was examined how realistic a VR experience has to be in order to have an effect. The VR experience consisted of a model of the Aletsch glacier (Switzerland) melting over the course of 220 years. Explicit measurements (new environmental paradigm NEP, climate change scepticism, and nature relatedness) and an implicit measurement (implicit association test) were collected before and after the VR intervention and compared to three different non-VR control conditions (video, images with text, and plain text). In addition, the VR environment was varied in terms of degrees of realism and sophistication (3 conditions: abstract visualization, less sophisticated realistic visualization, more sophisticated realistic visualization). The six experimental conditions (3 VR conditions, three control conditions) were modeled as mixed effects, with VR versus control used as a fixed effect in a mixed effects modeling framework. Across all six conditions, environmental awareness (NEP) was higher after the participants (N = 142) had been confronted with the glacier melting, while no differences were found for nature relatedness and climate change scepticism before and after the interventions. There was no significant difference between VR and control conditions for any of the four measurements. Nevertheless, contrast analyses revealed that environmental awareness increased significantly only for the VR but not for the control conditions, suggesting that VR is more likely to lead to attitude change. Our results show that exposure to VR environments successfully increased environmental awareness independently of the design choices, suggesting that even abstract and less sophisticated VR environment designs may be sufficient to increase pro-environmental attitudes.

We investigated the learning outcome of teaching an agent via immersive virtual reality (IVR) in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we compared IVR to a less immersive desktop setting and a control condition (writing a summary). Learning outcomes of participants who had explained the topic to an agent via IVR were better. However, this was only the case for participants who scored high on absorption tendency. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether including social cues in the task instructions enhances learning in participants explaining a topic to an agent. Instruction manipulation affected learning as a function of absorption tendency: Low-absorption participants benefitted most from being instructed to imagine they were helping a student peer pass an upcoming test, while high-absorption participants benefitted more when they were to explain the text to a virtual agent. The findings highlight the crucial role of personality traits in learning by teaching in IVR.

We investigated the imact of immersive VR exposure of a melting glacier on environmental awareness

Epidemics such as COVID-19 and corresponding containment measures are assumed to cause psychological stress. In a survey during the lockdown in Switzerland (n = 1565), we found substantially increased levels of stress in the population. In particular, individuals who did not agree with the containment measures, as well as those who saw nothing positive in the crisis, experienced high levels of stress. In contrast, individuals who are part of a risk group or who are working in healthcare or in essential shops experienced similar stress levels as the general public. The psychological mechanisms that determine stress, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures, are not yet clear. Thus, we conducted a path analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms that lead to stress. Experiencing fear of the disease is a key driver for being worried. Our model further shows that worries about the individual, social, and economic consequences of the crisis, strongly boost stress. The infection rate in the canton (i.e., state) of residence also contributes to stress. Positive thinking and perceived social, organizational, and governmental support mitigate worries and stress. Our findings indicate that containment measures increase worries and stress, especially for those who feel that these measures either are not sufficient or go too far. Thus, highlighting positive aspects of the crisis and convincing people of the effectiveness and necessity of mitigation measures can, not only promote compliance, but also reduce stress. Our model suggests that people who feel protected by the authorities have fewer worries, which can, in turn, limit the negative impact of the crisis on mental health.

While one is walking, the stimulation by one's body forms a structure with the stimulation by the environment. This locomotor array of stimulation corresponds to the human-environment relation that one's body forms with the environment it is moving through. Thus, the perceptual experience of walking may arise from such a locomotor array of stimulation. Humans can also experience walking while they are sitting. In this case, there is no stimulation by one's walking body. Hence, one can experience walking although a basic component of a locomotor array of stimulation is missing. This may be facilitated by perception organizing the sensory input about one's body and environment into a perceptual structure that corresponds to a locomotor array of stimulation. We examined whether locomotor illusions are generated by this perceptual formation of a locomotor structure. We exposed sixteen seated individuals to environmental stimuli that elicited either the perceptual formation of a locomotor structure or that of a control structure. The study participants experienced distinct locomotor illusions when they were presented with environmental stimuli that elicited the perceptual formation of a locomotor structure. They did not experience distinct locomotor illusions when the stimuli instead elicited the perceptual formation of the control structure. These findings suggest that locomotor illusions are generated by the perceptual organization of sensory input about one's body and environment into a locomotor structure. This perceptual body-environment organization elucidates why seated human individuals experience the sensation of walking without any proprioceptive or kinaesthetic stimulation.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 06 May 2021Sec. Human-Media Interaction https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.628298

Research suggests that immersion in computer games is beneficial for recovering from stress and improving mood. However, no study linked explicit measures of presence-individually experienced immersion-to mood enhancement. In the present experiment, immersion of a gaming activity was varied, and levels of presence and enjoyment were measured and connected to mood repair after a stress-induction. The participants (N = 77) played a game in virtual reality (VR; high immersion), on the desktop (medium immersion), or watched a recording of the game (low immersion). Positive emotions were enhanced in the high and medium, but not the low immersion condition. Presence was a significant predictor in the VR condition. Furthermore, an explanatory mediation analysis showed that enjoyment mediated the effect of presence on mood repair. These findings demonstrate positive effects of presence experiences in gaming Strong presence in VR seems especially helpful for enhancing mood and building up positive emotional resources.

Research suggests that epidemics and corresponding containment measures have negative consequences to the individual and cause stress. The psychological mechanisms that determine stress, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures, are not yet clear. In a survey during the lockdown in Switzerland (n=1565), we found substantially increased levels of stress in the population. In particular, individuals who did not agree with the containment measures, as well as those who saw nothing positive in the crisis, experienced even higher levels of stress. In contrast, individuals who are part of a risk group or who are working in healthcare or in essential shops experienced similar stress levels as the general public. We conducted a path analysis to gain a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms during lockdown. Experiencing fear of the disease is a key driver for being worried. Our model further shows that worries about the individual, social, and economic consequences of the crisis, strongly boost stress. The infection rate in the canton (i.e. state) of residence also contributes to stress. Positive thinking and perceived social, organizational, and governmental support mitigate worries and stress. To prevent stress, authorities should explain containment measures well, highlight positive aspects of the crisis, address worries, and facilitate support.

The velocity of moving stimuli has been linked to their experienced duration. This effect was extended to instances of self-motion, where one’s own movement affects the subjective length of time. However, the experimental evidence for this extension is scarce and the effect of self-motion has not been investigated using a reproduction paradigm. Therefore, we designed a virtual reality scenario that controls for attention and eliminates the confounding effect of velocity and acceleration. The scenario consisted of a virtual road on which participants (n = 26) moved along in a car for six different durations and with six different velocities. We measured the subjective duration of the movement with reproduction and direct numerical estimation. We also assessed levels of presence in the virtual world. Our results show that higher velocity was connected to longer subjective time for both forms of measurement. However, the effect showed deviations from linearity. Presence was not associated with subjective time and did not improve performance on the task. We interpreted the effect of velocity as corroborating previous work using stimulus motion, which showed the same positive association between velocity of movement and subjective time. The absence of an effect of presence was explained in terms of a lacking dependency of time on characteristics of the virtual environment. We suggest applying our findings to the design of virtual experiences intended for inducing time loss.

Walking through an environment involves perceiving one’s walking body and its environment relative to each other. The sensation of placing one foot in front of the other may therefore arise from sensory stimuli configuring into the structure of a body perambulating an environment. Sensory stimuli constituting such a locomotor structure may accordingly bear the potential to induce in seated individuals the locomotor illusion of walking through an environment. To date, this was not investigated. Here, we have therefore exposed sixteen seated human subjects in a life-sized virtual environment to visual and tactile stimuli that configured either into the structure of a body perambulating an environment or into a control structure. Our subjects experienced locomotor illusions exclusively when the visuo-tactile stimuli configured into the «body-perambulating-environment» structure. This suggests that the locomotor illusion of walking through an environment can arise in seated individuals from perceiving sensory stimuli configuring into such a sensorimotor body-environment structure.

In an experiment, effects of commercials that are either shown within a TV program or embedded in YouTube videos were compared. These two media environments have not yet been compared empirically in terms of their advertising impact. A within-subjects design and a multi-method approach were used (N = 36). Eye tracking data show that more attention is allocated to advertisements that appear within a TV program compared to the YouTube-condition and the viewing experience elicited more positive emotions in the TV-condition. Two days after reception, no difference in recognition, likeability, and purchase intention occurred, but in terms of implicit long-term memory: In the TV condition, brands that were previously advertised but no longer remembered elicited stronger skin conductance change than brands for which no advertisements had previously been shown. In terms of advertising impact, TV seems to still be the better choice for advertisers. Presentation mode should be considered in future evaluation of advertisement potential.

Examination of surgeons’ eye motions showed that gaze patterns differ between levels of expertise and various kinds of tasks (Hermens, Flin, & Ahmed, 2013). However, little research has looked into differences between visualization techniques, such as endoscopes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare eye-movements of ear surgeons operating with an established 2-dimensional endoscope and a relatively new 3-dimensional endoscope. Sixteen participants performed two kinds of simulated ear surgery on a cadavric specimen, once with a 2D endoscope and once with a 3D endoscope. Thus, all subjects (5 specialists and 11 residents) performed four surgeries in total. The order of the surgeries was randomized and participants were wearing eye-tracking glasses at all times (SMI, Berlin, Germany). Results showed that fixation duration differed significantly between the two surgical tasks. Whereas this difference was the same for residents in 2D and 3D, it increased for specialists using the 2D endoscope. Thus, specialists had longer fixation durations while performing the surgical task with a 2D endoscope, yet they could not apply the same gaze strategy with the 3D endoscope. This suggests that even well adapted specialists require a learning curve when adopting a new technology.

Sind die Fordermittel zielfuhrend und ist ihre Vergabe nachvollziehbar? Konnten Zusammen­arbeit und Kompetenzentwicklung in der Kinder- und Jugendpolitik verbessert werden? Eine Evaluation zieht funf Jahre nach Inkrafttreten des Kinder- und Jugendforderungs­gesetzes (KJFG) Bilanz und formuliert Empfehlungen.

Previous research indicates that the size of the own body affects the judgment of objects’ size, depending on the amount of subjective ownership toward the body (Van der Hoort et al. in PLOS ONE 6(5):e20195, 2011 ). We are the first to transfer this own-body-size effect into a virtual environment. In a series of three experiments, participants ( N = 68) had to embody small, medium, and large avatars and judge the size of objects. Body ownership was manipulated using synchronous and asynchronous touch. We also included a new paradigm with an additional change of perspective to induce stronger ownership (Experiment 2). Additionally, we assessed whether the visibility of the body during the judgment phase influenced the results (Experiment 3). In all three experiments, we found an overestimation in a small and an underestimation in a large body compared to a medium body. However, size estimation did not depend on the degree of ownership despite clear differences in self-reported ownership. Our results show that a virtual reality scenario does not require a visuotactile manipulation of ownership in order to evoke the own-body-size effect. Our validation of the effect in a virtual setting may be helpful for the design of clinical applications.