Cybersickness: Perception of Self-Motion in Virtual Environments
Abstract
Human perceptual systems have evolved to provide accurate information about orientation and movement through the environment. However, these systems have been challenged in the past century by modern transportation devices and will be further challenged by virtual environments (VEs) and teleoperator systems. Illusory self-motion within a VE (“cyberspace”) will be entertaining and instructive, but for many users it will result in motion sickness (“cybersickness”). Sensory conflict theory and the poison hypothesis provide an unproven theoretical foundation for understanding the phenomenon. Although no single engineering solution is likely, the problem can be contained by a combination of engineering design, equipment calibration, and exposure management.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Aviation, space and environmental medicine
(1987) · Journal of Sound and Vibration · doi:10.1016/0022-460x(87)90424-x · Cited by 556 · see citing works
Aviation, space and environmental medicine
(1983) · Journal of Sound and Vibration · doi:10.1016/0022-460x(83)90522-9 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
Money, K. E. (1970) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.1970.50.1.1 · Cited by 392 · see citing works
Vection and Simulator Sickness
Hettinger, L. J., Berbaum, K. S., Kennedy, R. S., Dunlap, W. P., & Nolan, M. D. (1990) · Military Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15327876mp0203_4 · Cited by 267 · see citing works
General Autonomic Components of Motion Sickness
Cowings, P. S., Suter, S., Toscano, W. B., et al. (1986) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-8986.1986.tb00671.x · Cited by 127 · see citing works
(1983) · PubMed · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Simulator sickness: a problem for Army aviation.
Crowley, J. S. (1987) · PubMed · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Pilot Differences and Motion Cuing Effects on Simulated Helicopter Hover
Ricard, G. L., & Parrish, R. V. (1984) · Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society · doi:10.1177/001872088402600301 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
A discussion of cybersickness in virtual environments
LaViola, J. J. (2000) · ACM SIGCHI Bulletin · doi:10.1145/333329.333344 · Cited by 1,426 · see citing works
Presence and Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Are Negatively Related: A Review
Weech, S., Kenny, S., & Barnett-Cowan, M. (2019) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00158 · Cited by 913 · see citing works
Vection and visually induced motion sickness: how are they related?
Keshavarz, B., Riecke, B. E., Hettinger, L. J., & Campos, J. L. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00472 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
“…Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada, 3 Center for Behavioral Sciences, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA, 4 Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada The occurrence of visually induced motion sickness has been frequently linked to the…”
BackgroundMotion sickness: more than nausea and vomiting
Lackner, J. R. (2014) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-014-4008-8 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
“…graphics to create virtual environments has led to great increases in visually induced motion sickness, including nausea and vomiting (DiZio and L ackner 2000; Lackner and DiZio 2003; McCauley and Sharkey 1992; Stanney et al. 1998; Hettinger and R iccio 1992; Kennedy et al. 1992a, b, 1993, 2010).”
BackgroundMeasurement of presence and its consequences in virtual environments
NICHOLS, S., HALDANE, C., & WILSON, J. R. (2000) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1006/ijhc.1999.0343 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Virtual reality therapy for anxiety disorders: Advances in evaluation and treatment.
Wiederhold, B. K., & Wiederhold, M. D. (2005) · doi:10.1037/10858-000 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
Better, Virtually: the Past, Present, and Future of Virtual Reality Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Lindner, P. (2021) · International Journal of Cognitive Therapy · doi:10.1007/s41811-020-00090-7 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Some practical considerations of ethical issues in VR research
Behr, K.-M., Nosper, A., Klimmt, C., & Hartmann, T. (2005) · Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments · doi:10.1162/105474605775196535 · Cited by 104 · see citing works
The simulator sickness questionnaire, and the erroneous zero baseline assumption
Brown, P., Spronck, P., & Powell, W. (2022) · Frontiers in Virtual Reality · doi:10.3389/frvir.2022.945800 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Lindner, P., Miloff, A., Bergman, C., Andersson, G., Hamilton, W., & Carlbring, P. (2020) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00116 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Virtual Reality Induced Symptoms and Effects: Concerns, Causes, Assessment & Mitigation
Conner, N. O., Freeman, H. R., Jones, J. A., Luczak, T., Carruth, D., Knight, A. C., & Chander, H. (2022) · Virtual Worlds · doi:10.3390/virtualworlds1020008 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Pieterse, A. D., Hierck, B. P., de Jong, P. G. M., Ginn, T. F., Hamoen, E. C., & Reinders, M. E. J. (2023) · Virtual Reality · doi:10.1007/s10055-022-00731-6 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
- Authors
- McCauley, M. E., & Sharkey, T. J.
- Affiliations
- Monterey Technologies (United States) (US)
- ORCID
- Sharkey, Thomas J.
- Venue
- Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Published
- 1992-01
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 311-318
- ISSN
- 1054-7460 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1554565390
- Cited by
- 508
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 1.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- PRESENCE Virtual and Augmented Reality (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Media Technology › Advanced Optical Imaging Technologies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vestibular and auditory disorders
- Keywords
- cybersickness, motion sickness, self-motion perception, virtual worlds, sensory conflict theory, teleoperation, orientation perception, exposure management, equipment calibration, virtual reality design
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
