Time Flies: Investigating Duration Judgments in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is becoming increasingly popular in today’s society. With this proliferation it becomes even more important to study the effects such environments may have on one’s perception of reality. Two pilot studies were run in order to provide insight into the relationship between time perception and flow in a virtual environment. In Experiment 1 participants played a music-oriented virtual game for 2 minutes. In Experiment 2 participants played a space-shooter virtual game for 5 minutes. Duration Judgment Ratio (DJR) and Flow State Scale (FSS-2) measures were taken and compared to one another. Though a relationship between DJR and Flow was not found in each experiment individually, insights gained from the comparison of the two experiments may provide additional understandings. The results of this pilot study could aid researchers in developing objective ways to measure components of flow especially with respect to virtual environments. Additional insights and applications are discussed.