Does the Vividness of Imagination Influence Illusory Self-Motion in Virtual Reality?

The illusory sensation of self-motion is defined as vection. Vection research can help enhance Virtual Reality applications and improve simulator fidelity as vection appears to be a desired sensation in motion simulators. The experience of vection can be modulated by cognitive factors and potentially personal traits, such as the vividness of imagination. Previous research investigating the relationship between auditory vection and kinesthetic imagery presented conflicting findings. However, the relationship between visually-induced vection and imagination has not been investigated. Herein we investigated the relationship between kinesthetic imagery and unimodal visual and bimodal visual-auditory vection. Twenty-nine participants were visually and audibly immersed in virtual environments with varying degrees of ecological relevance wherein they reported on their vection experience. No differences were found for vection intensity and latency measures between participants with high and low kinesthetic imagery. We conclude that imagery does not appear to play a role in the experience of visually-induced vection.