Beyond sight: Comparing traditional virtual reality and immersive multi-sensory environments in stress reduction of university students

What the study found

Both immersive conditions reduced anxiety; the multisensory condition showed a larger reduction trend, though the between-group difference was not statistically decisive.

Limitations

Short exposure; student sample; simulated environment; bundled sensory cues.

Neurodesign interpretation

Multisensory design should be treated as interaction design between senses. More sensory input is not inherently more restorative.

Possible design implications

Do not assume adding more senses automatically improves an environment; test congruence and user tolerance.

Why it stays in the corpus

Retain as evidence for both the promise and uncertainty of multisensory enhancement.

Study design

Randomized two-condition experiment

Population

University students with moderate-to-high stress

Setting

Immersive simulated environment

Field

Multisensory design

Mechanism

Anxiety reduction, sensory integration

Spatial variable

Visual versus visual-auditory-olfactory environment

Keywords

multisensory, VR, stress, olfaction, audition