Virtual View: statistics for experiment 3

In experiment three I wanted to see if adding movement to visual content had a bigger lowering effect on heart-rate and subjective stress then just using a still. And I wanted to know if variables like heart-rate and skin conductance could be restored to or below the baseline following a stress stimulus. Sound accompanied the […]

Virtual View: experiment 3 setup

For the design of the third experiment I got advice from Petra van der Schaaf, environmental psychologist. The main research question for this experiment is: does animation have added value in the restorative effect of natural stimuli? So far I’ve tested the stimuli in sets containing 6 or 12 slides. The sound didn’t have a […]

Virtual View: programming animation

I’m still working hard on my animation. It’s going a bit slower then anticipated (what else is new) but I’m confident that I’ll have a nice, representative animation finished for the experiment. As an inventory, these are the elements that I want in the testing (and probably) final landscape: horizon with hills, sky, water body, […]

Virtual View: developing animation

The past month I’ve been working on my landscape animation. By chance I discovered a great book by Daniel Shiffman called The nature of code. The book explains how to convert natural forces into code. I’m working through the book picking the forces and algorithms that suit my needs. So far the noise function in […]

Virtual View: animation theory

The last weeks I’ve been working on designing and researching my third experiment. The next step will be to introduce animation and to study its effects. I was curious to see if there had already been research into the effect of different types of animation on stress reduction. Rather to my surprise I couldn’t find […]

Information literacy

While designing experiment number three I bumped into the complexity of doing proper research. I realised I lacked some information literacy skills. Luckily the Open University (where I study psychology) offers free master classes. Last week one started on information literacy for researchers. This has been very helpful for me to get a grip on […]

Virtual View: results experiment 2

The analysis of the second experiment has taken a long time. At first there appeared to be no significant results on any of the variables, except on the heart-rate during the cognitive stress task. So I consulted different people with a degree and research experience and asked for help. I’ve really learned a lot from […]