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Short assessment scale to assess motion sickness in automated driving: Motion Sickness Task Tolerance (MSTT) Scale

Authors:
Christina Kremer at Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH)
Christina Kremer
  • Würzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH)
Markus Tomzig at Wuerzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH)
Markus Tomzig
  • Wuerzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences (WIVW GmbH)
Claus Marberger at Bosch
Claus Marberger
Michael Schulz at Bosch
Michael Schulz
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Abstract

The Motion Sickness Task Tolerance (MSTT) Scale measures the currently perceived symptoms of motion sickness. It includes criteria that relate discomfort categories to the ability to perform visual non-driving related tasks (NDRT).
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Short assessment scale to assess motion sickness in auto-
mated driving: Motion Sickness Task Tolerance (MSTT)
Scale
Christina Kaß, Markus Tomzig, Claus Marberger, Michael Schulz, Philipp Alt,
Stefanie Horn, Michaela Teicht, and Arnd Engeln
1 Current version of the scale (2022/07/06)
How severe are your symptoms concerning motion sickness at this moment?
2 Instructions
• Please use ‘not noticeable’, if you do not experience any specific symptoms of motion sickness at
this moment in time.
• Please use the category ‘harmless’ (ratings 1-3), if you experience mild symptoms of motion sick-
ness. However, the level of motion sickness still allows you to stay fully engaged in the non-driving
related task (NDRT).
• Please use the category ‘uncomfortable’ (ratings 4-6), if you experience a level of motion sickness
that diminishes NDRT engagement (e.g., attention is increasingly drawn to the symptoms of motion
sickness).
• Please use the category ‘not tolerable’ (ratings 7-9), if the symptoms cause you to temporarily
interrupt or terminate the NDRT. However, it would still be possible to continue the drive looking
outside.
• Please use ‘unbearable’ (rating 10), if you want/need to terminate the complete drive because of
severe symptoms of motion sickness.
3 Background information
• The scale measures the currently perceived symptoms of motion sickness.
• Purpose: spontaneous and repeated assessment of the current user state during a motion sickness
inducing test drive (e.g., administered every 2 minutes). Ideally, the instrument should be comple-
mented by more detailed pre-drive/post-drive questionnaires that focus on individual symptoms of
motion sickness. Examples are the MSAQ (Gianaros et al., 2001) or SSQ (Kennedy et al., 1993).
• The 10-step scale with 5 categories was adopted from well-known scales to assess controllability
or criticality of driving situations (cf. Neukum et al., 2008 or Tscharn et al., 2018)
• In contrast to already available short-scales like FMS (Keshavarz & Hecht, 2011) or MISC (Bos et
al., 2005) the MSTF scale includes criteria that relate discomfort categories to the ability to perform
visual non-driving related tasks (NDRT).
• The scale can also be used to determine and monitor threshold for abortion of trials for ethical
reasons (e.g., avoidance of ratings above 6).
4 Authors
• WIVW GmbH (Christina Kaß, Markus Tomzig)
• Robert Bosch GmbH (Claus Marberger, Michael Schulz, Philipp Alt, Stefanie Horn)
• Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart (Michaela Teicht, Arnd Engeln)
5 References
Bos, J.E.; MacKinnon, S.N.; Patterson, A. (2005). Motion sickness symptoms in a ship motion simulator:
effects of inside, outside, and no view. Aviat Space Environ. Med., 76 (12), pp. 1111-1118
Gianaros, P. J., Muth, E. R., Mordkoff, J. T., Levine, M. E., & Stern, R. M. (2001). A questionnaire for
the assessment of the multiple dimensions of motion sickness. Aviation, space, and environmental
medicine, 72(2), 115.
Kennedy, R. S., Lane, N. E., Berbaum, K. S., & Lilienthal, M. G. (1993). Simulator sickness question-
naire: An enhanced method for quantifying simulator sickness. The international journal of aviation
psychology, 3(3), 203-220.
Keshavarz, B., & Hecht, H. (2011). Validating an efficient method to quantify motion sickness. Human
factors, 53(4), 415-426.
Neukum, A., Ufer, E., Paulig, J., & Krüger, H. P. (2008). Controllability of superposition steering system
failures. Steering tech.
Tscharn, R., Naujoks, F., & Neukum, A. (2018). The perceived criticality of different time headways is
depending on velocity. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 58,
1043-1052.
... To quickly assess motion sickness during the drive, the second measure for motion sickness was the Motion Sickness Task Tolerance scale (MSTT) [1] which was newly developed within the RUMBA project (https://projekt-rumba.de/, see Figure 4). It assesses the impact of the motion sickness symptoms on the tolerance of a secondary task, using linguistic anchoring of the scale items. ...
How to Make Reading in Fully Automated Vehicles a Better Experience? Effects of Active Seat Belt Retractions and a 2-Step Driving Profile on Subjective Motion Sickness, Ride Comfort and Acceptance
Conference Paper
  • Sep 2023
The paper presents a study on motion sickness mitigation while driving with a fully automated vehicle on a test track. 31 participants who were susceptible to motion sickness experienced a 25-minuntes drive with multiple motion sickness provoking decelerations and accelerations while reading a text on a tablet. The participants experienced three different conditions in separate sessions: 1) control condition without countermeasure, 2) drive with active seat belt tensioner, 3) drive with a two-step driving profile. The participants rated their motion sickness on the MSTT Scale (during the drive; Kaß et al., 2022) and on the MSAQ (pre and post drive; Gianaros et al., 2001). After each drive, drivers rated their subjective experience of vehicle behavior and the countermeasures. On MSTT, the results showed no significant differences in the development of motion sickness across the three conditions. However, the two-step driving profile reduced the development of motion sickness assessed via MSAQ. Furthermore, both countermeasures seem to have the potential to positively influence the perception of the automation as safer, more trustworthy and more reliable.
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... Together with employees of Robert Bosch GmbH and Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart, we developed a new scale to assess motion sickness at regular intervals during the experimental drive [45]. In contrast to other scales that are commonly used for regular assessment of motion sickness symptoms [7,46], the new "Motion Sickness Task Tolerance" (MSTT) scale ( Figure 5) assesses the impact of the motion sickness symptoms on the tolerance of the secondary task, using linguistic anchoring of the scale items. ...
Using Active Seat Belt Retractions to Mitigate Motion Sickness in Automated Driving
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2022
The introduction of automated-driving functions provides passengers with the opportunity to engage in non-driving related tasks during the ride. However, this benefit might be compromised by an increased incidence of motion sickness. Therefore, we investigated the effectiveness of active seat belt retractions as a countermeasure against motion sickness during inattentive automated driving. We hypothesized that seat belt retractions would mitigate motion sickness by supporting passengers to anticipate upcoming braking maneuvers, by actively tensioning their neck muscles and, thereby, reducing the extent of forward head movement while braking. In a motion base driving simulator, 26 participants encountered two 30 min automated drives in slow-moving traffic: one drive with active seat belt retractions before each braking maneuver and a baseline drive without. The results revealed that there was no difference in perceived motion sickness between both experimental conditions. Seat belt retractions resulted in an increased activity of the lateral neck muscles and supported drivers to anticipate braking maneuvers. However, at the same time, the retractions led to an increased magnitude of head movement in response to braking. This research lays the groundwork for future research on active seat belt retractions as a countermeasure against motion sickness and provides directions for future work.
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