How Sounds Influence People's Safety Decision ----Human Interaction with a Virtual Reality Simulator

Safety decisions made by construction workers on-site directly affect the rate of injury. Virtual Reality safety simulators have been created for training workers in site safety. This paper examines the effect that sound has on the realism of virtual reality simulators and the effect that virtual reality training has on subsequent behaviour in the physical world. A Virtual Reality environment and a corresponding physical environment were built for the tests. Tests involved manoeuvring a wheelbarrow around a construction site. Safe and unsafe route were available. Participants were divided into two groups, those with background sounds in their simulation and those without. Participants also completed the same activity in a physical environment either before or after the virtual simulation to investigate the effect virtual training would have on real world activity. The paper is unique in testing users with and without sound in construction safety simulators. Results show that people are more likely to take shortcuts when there is no background sound and that previous exposure to the Virtual Reality simulator does reduce unsafe activity in the physical environment. Results of the paper are useful for those creating virtual reality simulators. Limitations of the research are that it applies to a very specific problem and results need to be generalised over a larger set of problems. Future research is also required to determine what sound range (in terms of decibels) is best for virtual reality training.