Virtual environments can cause symptoms ranging from general discomfort to disorientation and nausea (LaViola, 2000). The phenomenon called cybersickness resembles motion sickness (MS) but is visually induced (VIMS) (Muth et al., 2018). Unfortunately screening questionnaires with high prospective power are lacking which makes process indicators an interesting candidate to screen for VIMS. Working models for MS like the Sensory Conflict Theory (Reason & Brand, 1975) – postulating a mismatch in various sensory modalities between expected and actual motion – can be conveyed to VIMS to eyeball the relationships between these concepts. A subsequent theory the Subjective Vertical Mismatch Theory (Bos & Bles, 1998) stresses the importance of the sense of verticality for matching planned and external sensed motion. To test the individual sense of verticality a virtual rod and frame test (physical RFT setup was already described by Witkin and Asch (1948). was developed which measures the field dependency as a marker for the sense of verticality. In the context of MS, a positive correlation with higher field dependence has been found, for VIMS induced by simulators a contrary connection was found, but validations for VIMS or specifically for cybersickness are missing. We postulate a main effect of the virtual environment on reported cybersickness (pre-/post comparison) as a mandatory prerequisite. Moreover, we test the correlation between various metrics of Field dependency sampled with a virtual rod and frame test and the baseline corrected cybersickness self-reports. Cybersickness was sampled in the virtual rod and frame test itself but also in a virtual city environment that tests visuospatial orientation by applying a free exploration task. Hence we are enabled to addtionally control for order effects, which would limit the applicability of the VR RFT as a screening questionnaire. These data do not only serve the purpose of metanalyses and transparency of the original paper but also ethical alleviation. The induction of cybersickness regardless of being voluntarily or involuntarily is a stressful event for participants. Therefore the reuse of research data in this area reduces the need for various stressful experiments, in case reporting is rigorous.

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