Effects of Semantically Irrelevant Virtual Reality Experience on Memory and Emotion

NCT07393776 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 2022-966
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 156
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

First responders at the Federal, State and local level are those on the front lines of providing support to their communities during an emergency or a disaster. Their work domains are emergency public security, firefighting, law enforcement, emergency response, and emergency medical care. Due to the inherent characteristics of the jobs they perform, they are constantly exposed to very stressful, demanding and dangerous work environments. Such an exposure often leads to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). More than 80 percent of first responders experience traumatic events on their job duty. Various efforts to treat about trauma have been made to address the first responders' mental health. However, existing interventions are not directly targeted at the causes of mental health problems, which is the memory of the adverse events. The objective the proposed research is to investigate the effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) experience on the memory of an adverse event (e.g., fire).

Conditions

Comparison Group; Control Group; Intervention Group

Keywords

virtual reality; mental health; memory suppression; emotion

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Memory accuracy

  The ratio of correct images participants chose from two images of the fire video they watched.

  Immediately after participants received the intervention.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Positive And Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)

  Immediately after participants watched the fire video and immediately after they watched the VR video (intervention) or read the text (comparison).

Study Arms (3)

Intervention Group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Intervention Group participants watched semantically irrelevant VR video of the Red Sea underwater diving 5 minutes after participants watched the fire video.

Other: Watching VR video

Control

NO INTERVENTION

Control group participants did not receive any intervention.

Comparison Group

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

Comparison Group participants read text description of the Red Sea underwater diving 5 minutes after participants watched the fire video.

Other: Reading text

Interventions

Reading text OTHER

Participants read text paragraphs regarding underwater diving 5 minutes after they watched the fire video.

Comparison Group

Watching VR video OTHER

Participants watch 360-degree VR video of underwater diving 5 minutes after they watched the fire video.

Intervention Group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• aged at least 18 years
• currently enrolled at the university

You may not qualify if:

• under 18 years
• not currently enrolled at the university

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Texas Tech University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Industrial, Manufacturing, & Systems Engineering Department

Lubbock, Texas, 79409, United States

Location

Related Publications (2)

• Son, C., Parker, K., & Jamshidzadeh, M. (2026). Effects of a Semantically Irrelevant Virtual Reality Experience on Memory and Emotion After Watching a Traumatic Event: Randomized Controlled Experimental Study. JMIR Formative Research

  RESULT

• Son C, Parker K, Jamshidzadeh M. Effects of a Semantically Irrelevant Virtual Reality Experience on Memory and Emotion After Watching a Traumatic Event: Randomized Controlled Experimental Study. JMIR Form Res. 2026 Feb 26;10:e75848. doi: 10.2196/75848.

  PMID: 41747253 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Psychological Well-Being

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personal Satisfaction; Behavior

Study Officials

• Changwon Son, PhD

  Texas Tech University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Masking Details: Participants were masked about the group they were assigned to.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: In stage 1, participants in all groups watched a short video of an actual severe house fire to create a traumatic event memory. In stage 2, the control group stayed seated without doing anything, the comparison group read a paragraph about the Egyptian Ocean as semantically irrelevant follow-up information, and the intervention group watched a 360° VR video of the Egyptian Ocean that features opposite attributes to the fire (eg, blue water vs red fire, cool water vs hot fire).

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 9, 2026
• First Posted: February 6, 2026
• Study Start: June 27, 2023
• Primary Completion: September 8, 2023
• Study Completion: September 8, 2023
• Last Updated: February 6, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)