Haptic feedback as affective amplifier: enhanced fear perception affects cognitive performance and avoidance actions...

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Affective Computing
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Haptic feedback intensifies emotional responses in VR.
• Threat perception is amplified by affective stimuli.
• Understanding affective-motor competition is crucial for VR design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how haptic-enhanced fear stimuli affect cognitive performance and avoidance actions.
• To examine the impact of platform shaking during VR height exposure.
• To develop a mechanistic model of affective-motor competition.

Main Methods:

• Multimodal assessment of physiological (EEG, arousal), behavioral (movement, eye tracking), and cognitive (nine-light task) data.
• Four emotion-inducing conditions: neutrality, ground, stationary, and shaking.
• Twenty male participants with self-reported fear of heights.

Main Results:

• Significant declines in cognitive task accuracy and prolonged reaction times during shaking.
• Decreased movement distance and increased pupil dilation indicating automatic defense.
• Physiological markers (heart rate, EEG beta band) confirmed amplified threat processing.

Conclusions:

• Haptic fear stimuli impair cognitive and motor performance due to resource competition.
• Somatic threat cues translate into altered actions via affective-motor competition.
• Multimodal data integration provides a mechanistic model for threat response in VR.