Research advances in stress induction and assessment under virtual reality conditions

The use of virtual reality technology (virtual reality, VR) to induce stress has gradually become a common form of stress induction, which involves two main components: the construction of stress-inducing materials and the validation of these materials for their effectiveness. Existing inducing materials vary widely but exhibit common characteristics in form. In this paper, virtual reality-based stress induction is categorized into VR classical paradigm, exposure-based stress inducing form and interaction-based stress inducing form based on the characteristics

of the inducing materials. The effectiveness validation of stress-inducing materials can be evaluated from subjective experience and physiological indicators. Commonly used methods for subjective experience assessment include scale measurement and subjective stress level report. Physiological indicators mainly include cortisol, alpha-amylase, heart rate variability, and electrodermal activity.