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Validating Accuracy of Embrace Plus in Measuring Electrodermal Activity During VR Stress Induction
Homann, Theresa (2025) Validating Accuracy of Embrace Plus in Measuring Electrodermal Activity During VR Stress Induction.
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| Abstract: | Wearables have become widely used tools in ambulatory psychophysiological research and stress research. However, concerns remain about their accuracy in measuring stress-related responses, especially electrodermal activity (EDA), since the wrist placement can hinder accurate measurements due to a lower density of sweat glands. Therefore, multiple studies have tried to validate these devices, finding issues in the sensitivity for smaller stressors. Using Virtual Reality (VR) for this validation offers a safe, standardised way to test stress responses, especially when using more acute stressors. Therefore, this study aims to validate the accuracy of the Embrace Plus in measuring EDA compared to a golden standard using the three-level framework from Van Lier et al. (2019) including the signal level (overall shape and timing), the parameter level (accuracy of measured parameters) and the event level (across scenarios). The participants were exposed to the VR version of the TSST and a virtual height exposure scenario. As expected, at the signal level, agreement between the devices was low (M=0.05). At the parameter level, the Embrace Plus underestimated all three parameters, with the number of SCRs being the most accurate, with a moderate agreement, against previous expectations. For the event-level, responses for the phases were detected by the wearable, but the responses were significantly less prominent. All in all, the results suggest that the Embrace Plus consistently underestimates EDA and cannot accurately detect all trends. These results may be caused by a misalignment of the devices, caused by a temporal difference between the two. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology BSc (56604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107143 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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