VR, Stroop, Anxiety, Stress, Cognition
Anxiety classification in VirtualReality using biosensors is an ongoing challenge for the area. This paperpresents the development and validation of a Virtual Reality version of thewell-established cognitive task; the Emotional Stroop Colour-Word Task. Thisenvironment aims to be able to differentiate between varying states of anxietyof the user. The task is split into three “stages” to correspond with threedifferent states; no anxiety, low anxiety and anxiety. To validate whether theenvironment can accurately separate between these states, we have used arepeated measures design comparing each stage based on the mean (1) averageelectrodermal activity, (2) average self-reported measure of anxiety, and (3)average performance of the users in the stage. Repeated measures ANOVA resultsshow that there is a significant difference between stages in electrodermalactivity and self-reported anxiety, but not in response time. This signifiesthat it might be possible to record different anxiety states using theapplication. Further research must be conducted to test this hypothesis.