Effects of sound sensitivity and emotions on auditory self-motion perception

PURPOSE OF RESEARCH: It is important that we gain a thorough understanding of the way in which we perceive the speed and direction of our self-motions. For example, this knowledge could be used to reduce the incidence of traffic accidents and falling in the elderly. While many senses are involved in self-motion perception, it has long been known that visual information alone can induce compelling illusions of self-motion (known as vection). For example, passengers seated on a stationary train often experience an illusion of self-motion when the train on the adjacent track pulls out of the station. The aim of the current project is to examine the contributions of auditory cues to the perception of self-motion. The experience of vection can be largely variable due to individual differences, and so this study will assess overall sound sensitivity and emotional experiences in response to vection inducing sound stimuli. METHOD AND DEMANDS ON PARTICIPANTS: This study is an interactive online questionnaire with listening components, delivered through Qualtrics. Participants will require their own headphones and computer to study (mobile and tablet devices are acceptable). A self-administered hearing test will first assess participants' range of hearing, and to calibrate their system audio volume for the following experiment. For the interactive portion of the survey, participants will click on a link for each audio file to be presented for 30 s. Participants will be instructed to listen to each audio file with headphones, keeping their eyes closed for the duration of each sound. Participants will then be asked to rate the extent to which they experienced 15 different emotions during listening on a scale from 0 - 7. Participants will then be asked to rate the strength of illusory self-motion (vection) from 0 - 10. Participants will then be asked to report any motion sickness (if any) on a scale from 0 - 20. Participants will then complete the Misophonia questionnaire. Misophonia is a condition in which individuals experience intense anger and/or disgust when they are confronted with particular sounds. The questionnaire will assess participants' individual sensitivity to common sound triggers (not necessarily the sounds used in this study). Participants will then complete the ASMR checklist - ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which is a calming, pleasurable feeling and tingling sensations in the scalp and down the back of the neck in response to a specific stimulus (typically sounds). The ASMR checklist will assess participants tendency to experience tingles to common triggers. These stimuli and measures have been used in face-to-face laboratory experiments without incident

What was the independent variable in the study? i.e. What groups or conditions were the experimenters comparing/what was the experimental manipulation/what was the predictor variable? How was this implemented? Do you think that the implementation was successful for making the comparison of interest?