Investigating the Effect of Training With a Virtual Reality Driving Simulator

Spatial orientation virtual reality experiment equivalent to Morris water test as primary outcome measure.

This test is one of the PI's team designs used in a previous study (B2016:073), which is the VR replica of the standard Morris Water test; and will be run at baseline and at the end of trial (post-intervention). In this test participants sit behind a computer monitor and they move within a virtual maze to reach a particular target. They will do this test using the laptop screen. The test has 5 trials, and participants' trajectory to reaching the target is recorded. The ratio between the total trajectories and the trajectories in the correct quadrant, quadrant of which the target is placed in, is reported as the error of participant trying to find the target.

Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale (MADRS) to measure depression as a confounding variable.

The MADRS is a ten item rating scale for rating levels of depression. Each item is rated on a 7-point scale from 0 to 6, where 0 indicates absence of the symptom and 6 indicates extreme presence of the symptom. So, the maximum raw score of the test will be 60. The raw score reported more than 10, indicates the possible presence of depression. The time frame for the scale is the previous four weeks.

Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) to assess the plausible motion sickness due to using the driving simulator.

The SSQ is a sixteen item questionnaire for rating the severity of most common symptoms associated with motion sickness, nausea and oculo-motor problems, experienced by users of virtual reality systems. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale from 0 to 3, where 0 indicates absence of the symptom and 3 indicates the symptom being severe. The total raw score reported by the questionnaire is 48, and the higher the reported score the more severe the symptoms experienced due to simulation sickness. The SSQ will be run after the first session of using the driving simulator and at the end of the trial (post-intervention).

Short questionnaire to assess the level of satisfaction after using the driving simulator to collect participants' general feedback on the experiment.

This is a short questionnaire consisting of 3 questions for rating the level of participants' satisfaction after using the driving simulator. Each item is rated on a 10-point scale from 1 to 10, representing from low to high satisfaction levels. The total raw score for the questionnaire is 30, and the higher the score, the higher the level of the satisfaction after using the driving simulator. This test will be run at the end of the trial (post-intervention).