08. The Oculus Rift VR Enhances Mindfulness Practice Adjunctive Treatment

Abstract

In modern society, technology is often thought of as a distraction, but the purpose of this study was to observe if technology could be utilized to aid in mindfulness practice. We examined the effect of virtual reality (VR) on mindfulness to assess levels of nonjudgement, awareness, and attention. We used an Oculus Rift (Facebook Technologies, LLC) ©, the Perfect (NDreams) © virtual reality environment, and the Hill’s Mindfulness Practice (HMP) © auditory training instructions, created by the authors. Participants were randomly selected into three conditions over a six-session trial: a VR group with mindfulness training, an auditory mindfulness group, and a VR control group. A significant main effect on nonjudgement showed an increase in scores, F (1, 32) = 5.75, p = .02, η_p² = .15. The mindfulness control group had the same amount of time awareness in the first session and significantly lower awareness for sessions two through six, F (10,160) = 2.69, p = .02, η_p² = .12. There was a main effect of calmness between training groups, F (2, 32) = 6.211, p = .005, η_p² = .28. The VR control (M = 6.83, SD = .32) showed significantly lower reports of calmness than the mindfulness control (M = 7.79, SD = .31) and mindfulness VR groups (M = 8.40, SD = .31) which did not differ. Together, these findings could be used to help college students learn to be present in the moment and maintain awareness in their everyday life.

Key Words: Mindfulness, virtual reality, technology, awareness, attention, nonjudgement