Visuospatial Training Does Not Reduce Motion Sickness Susceptibility

Abstract

Smyth et al. (2021) reported the results of a driving study which they interpreted as suggesting that working on visuospatial problems is an effective method to reduce the susceptibility to motion sickness while they also mentioned that the reason as to why this should be the case is unknown. Here we present a conceptual replication of their study using a much larger sample size than that of the original study. A 30-minute simulated drive in a virtual environment was used to induce motion sickness. During the subsequent 14 days, participants in the visuospatial-training group, but not participants in the no-training group, worked on visuospatial problems for 15 minutes a day, as in the original study. Participants then returned to the laboratory for their second 30-minute simulated drive. Motion sickness severity was substantially reduced from the first to the second drive, but the visuospatial training did not significantly affect this reduction in motion sickness. We conclude that working on visuospatial problems does not reduce the susceptibility to motion sickness.