The Efficacy of a Virtual Reality-Based Mindfulness Intervention Caglar Yildirim Tara O’Grady Khoury College of Computer Sciences Department of Computer Sciences Northeastern University State University of New York at Oswego Boston, MA, US Oswego, NY, US
[email protected] [email protected] Abstract—Mindfulness can be defined as increased embodied within the body, feelings, states of mind, and awareness of and sustained attentiveness to the present moment. experiential phenomena. Mindfulness has been a topic of Recently, there has been a growing interest in the applications empirical research since its introduction in 1979 as a stress of mindfulness for empirical research in wellbeing and the use reduction intervention by Jon Kabat-Zinn [5]. Since then, of virtual reality (VR) environments and 3D interfaces as a there has been an increasing scholarly interest in its conduit for mindfulness training. Accordingly, the current applications for empirical research, and mindfulness training experiment investigated whether a brief VR-based mindfulness has been shown to lead to better cognitive control, increased intervention could induce a greater level of state mindfulness, happiness, satisfaction with life, and overall psychological when compared to an audio-based intervention and control wellbeing [31]. group. Results indicated two mindfulness interventions, VR- based and audio-based, induced a greater state of mindfulness, While previous studies have provided converging compared to the control group. Participants in the VR-based evidence for the benefits of long-term mindfulness training mindfulness intervention group reported a greater state of interventions, lasting from several weeks to months [5], these mindfulness than those in the guided audio group, indicating the studies necessitate the investment of a considerable amount of immersive mindfulness intervention was more robust.