Flow State and Physiological Responses During Alternative Uses Task in Real and Virtual Working Environments

This study investigated the flow state and physiological responses during an alternative use task (AUT) in a virtual reality (VR) environment among 15 healthymale undergraduate students. The experiment consisted of two conditions: a) conducting the task in a laboratory setting (REAL condition); b) performing the task in a VR environment replicating the laboratory setting (VR condition). Each session comprised a 5-min rest period and a 15-min task performance. Different task conditions were applied to two sets of conditions. This study compared subjective assessments (flow scores, subjective mental workload, and simulator sickness), task performance, and physiological responses between the conditions. The results showed no significant differences in the flowscores between the conditions. Conversely, subjective mental workload, physical demand, and frustration results in VR were significantly higher than those in the REAL condition. Furthermore, task performance was significantly lower in the VR condition, suggesting that increased eye fatigue may increase workload and lead to decreased performance. In terms of physiological response results, the heart rate increased significantly during task performance compared to the rest period, indicating heightened sympathetic nervous system activity. Additionally, during task performance, there was a significant decrease in the low-frequency (LF:0.04-0.15 Hz) and high-frequency components (HF:0.15-0.40 Hz) of heart rate variability, suggesting the inhibition of parasympathetic nervous system activity. Therefore, owing to the difficulty level of the task and the prominent negative effects of the HMD, the AUT used in this study may not induce a flow state, despite the immersive VR environment.