Measurement Methods in Virtual Tourism Studies: Three Pitfalls for Future Explorations
In the realm of virtual tourism, researchers are increasingly turning to physiological methods to gain insights into user engagement and emotional responses, moving beyond self-reported data. Two such methods, eye-tracking and galvanic skin response (GSR), have shown promise in this regard.
Eye-tracking provides objective data on visual attention, revealing which elements users focus on, how long they look, and their patterns of exploration. This can indicate both engagement (e.g., repeated or prolonged focus on key virtual features) and specific emotional responses (e.g., avoiding certain areas, rapid or slow scanning). GSR, on the other hand, measures changes in skin conductance, often linked to arousal and emotional intensity, such as excitement or anxiety. It can signal peaks of emotional engagement in response to particular stimuli within the virtual environment.
These methods offer a multimodal perspective: eye-tracking captures what users attend to, while GSR captures the intensity of their emotional reactions, enabling researchers to triangulate engagement and emotion more robustly than self-reports alone.
However, while these techniques hold promise, several caveats must be considered in future studies. Physiological responses are complex and can be influenced by factors unrelated to the tourism experience, such as ambient temperature, physical comfort, or individual stress unrelated to the study context. Emotional arousal (GSR) may not always map neatly to positive versus negative experiences.
Moreover, these measures indicate physiological or attention-based responses but do not always clarify the underlying reasons for engagement or emotion. Supplementary methods, such as interviews or questionnaires, are often needed for a full understanding.
Eye-tracking may miss peripheral awareness or multi-sensory engagement, and GSR is sensitive but can be noisy. Both require careful calibration and quality control to ensure reliable data. Collecting physiological data raises privacy and ethical issues, especially regarding user consent and data security. The invasive nature of wearing sensors may also affect participants’ natural behavior.
Baseline physiological activity varies widely among individuals, requiring normalization procedures for cross-participant comparison. Some users may also habituate quickly to virtual stimuli, potentially diminishing the sensitivity of these measures over time.
To mitigate these limitations, future studies should adopt a multimodal approach, account for individual differences, and complement physiological data with qualitative methods. Integrating physiological methods with neurophysiological (e.g., EEG), psychometric, and behavioral data provides a more comprehensive picture of user experience.
In a study with 20 participants, a virtual nature-based tourism environment was used to assess the efficacy of these emergent physiological techniques. The study found that eye-tracking was an effective technique for analyzing attention in virtual tourism environments, with participants paying more attention to human activities in nature than pure natural elements. However, GSR was less effective in assessing emotional responses in the virtual tourism environment.
In conclusion, eye-tracking and GSR are effective and increasingly used tools for assessing engagement and emotional responses in virtual tourism environments, offering insights beyond self-reported data. However, their application requires careful consideration of contextual, technical, ethical, and interpretive challenges. Future studies should adopt a multimodal approach, account for individual differences, and complement physiological data with qualitative methods to mitigate these limitations.
- In the field of education-and-self-development, the comprehensive insights gained from eye-tracking and galvanic skin response (GSR) can aid researchers in understanding the engagement levels and emotional responses of individuals learning virtually.
- Fitness-and-exercise professionals could leverage physiological methods, such as eye-tracking and GSR, to analyze user engagement and emotional responses in virtual fitness classes, thereby enhancing the design of personalized workout routines based on objective data.
