The Spheres & Shield Maze Task: A Virtual Reality Serious Game for the Assessment of Risk Taking in Decision Making
Carla de-Juan-Ripoll, José L Soler-Domínguez, Irene Alice Chicchi Giglioli, Manuel Contero, Mariano Alcañiz, Carla de-Juan-Ripoll, José L Soler-Domínguez, Irene Alice Chicchi Giglioli, Manuel Contero, Mariano Alcañiz
Abstract
Risk taking (RT) is an essential component in decision-making process that depicts the propensity to make risky decisions. RT assessment has traditionally focused on self-report questionnaires. These classical tools have shown clear distance from real-life responses. Behavioral tasks assess human behavior with more fidelity, but still show some limitations related to transferability. A way to overcome these constraints is to take advantage from virtual reality (VR), to recreate real-simulated situations that might arise from performance-based assessments, supporting RT research. This article presents results of a pilot study in which 41 individuals explored a gamified VR environment: the Spheres & Shield Maze Task (SSMT). By eliciting implicit behavioral measures, we found relationships between scores obtained in the SSMT and self-reported risk-related constructs, as engagement in risky behaviors and marijuana consumption. We conclude that decontextualized Virtual Reality Serious Games are appropriate to assess RT, since they could be used as a cross-disciplinary tool to assess individuals' capabilities under the stealth assessment paradigm.
Keywords: evaluation methodologies; implicit measures; risk taking; serious games; virtual reality.
Conflict of interest statement
No competing financial interests exist.
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References
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Source: PubMed