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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Virtual Real.

Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2025.1490588

Immersion and interaction during cycling in virtual reality: the influence on perceived effort and subjective experience

Provisionally accepted
  • 1Institute of Intelligent Industrial Systems and Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, ICT and Technology for Energy and Transport, National Research Council (CNR), Milan, Italy
  • 2Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
  • 3Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering, Polytechnic University of Milan, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a powerful tool for creating engaging and dynamic exercise environments that have the potential to change individuals' perception of effort during exercise. Despite its implications, especially in the rehabilitation field, a consensus on the factors related to VR that are most effective has not yet been reached in the literature. The present study investigates how immersion and interaction influence perceived effort and subjective experience during exercise. Thirty-five young adults (age = 25.86 ± 4.96 y.) participated in a single 40-minute cycling session across four conditions: no VR, VR on a TV, VR with a headset, and VR with a headset plus an interactive task, all simulating a ride in a park. Despite a direct influence on the rate of perceived effort could not be observed, participants reported higher physical effort, represented by higher breathing rate, and higher attention, when immersion and interaction were combined. Despite slight side effects, people enjoyed and felt more present in most immersive VR conditions, making it their preferred way to exercise. Future works should continue in two directions: extending the protocol by including other target groups, e.g., patients, and exploring other VR features.

Keywords: Immersion, Interaction, Cycling, Perceived effort, User Experience

Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Colombo, Mondellini, Aliverti and Sacco. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Vera Colombo, vera.colombo@stiima.cnr.it

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