Investigating the Effect of VR + Haptics Approach on Students’ Flow Experience and Outcomes: An Empirical Study on VR Laparoscopy

Background. Virtual reality-based surgery training has become a promising trend in the sector of clinical education. Prior studies have confirmed the effectiveness of VR-based surgical simulators on training surgeons. Most existing papers employing subjective methods explored the students’ overall perceptions of surgical skills. However, few studies, from the multidimension perspective of learning performance, investigate how VR improves surgery skills. Participants. 37 college students were recruited in comparative experimental research. The experimental group was equipped with a VR + haptic surgical simulator, while the VR simulator without haptic feedback was used for the control group. Method. The study resorted to physiological approaches to investigate the influence of the VR laparoscopic surgical training system on students’ performance. Results. The experimental group scored higher than the control group in flow experience and has better performance in the four dimensions of operation evaluation skills. Conclusion. The study deposited that learners are more likely to exert to flow experience in a learning situation with haptic feedback, which will further improve medical students’ performance.