Special Issue Education Information Sciences Psychology and Education Sociology

Development of Gamified VR Content to Enhance Indoor Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception

by Masaya Nakahara - November 21, 2025

In Japan, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods are frequent. However, many citizens view such disasters as impersonal events rather than imminent personal threats. This has led to low participation rates in local disaster drills and poor retention of disaster prevention knowledge, posing significant challenges. Against this backdrop, existing research has reported the effectiveness of disaster prevention education utilizing gamification and VR. However, when applying existing approaches to VR-based disaster prevention education, it is necessary to consider the potential psychological burden of highly realistic depictions, opportunities for self-directed hazard identification, and replay-oriented design. Therefore, this study developed VR disaster prevention learning content incorporating gamification. The content was designed to foster a sense of crisis about disasters and interest in replay while considering psychological burden. The proposed content employs a "spot-the-difference" game mechanic, requiring users to actively identify deficiencies in indoor disaster preparedness measures. As a proof of concept, a questionnaire survey was conducted immediately after the experience with 123 participants, including high school students. Many participants reported an increased sense of crisis regarding disasters and an intention to replay the game.

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Special Issue Information Sciences Psychology and Education Sociology

Development of a VR Vertical Evacuation Simulator for Schools Integrating Conformity Bias for Disaster Preparedness Education

by Masaya Nakahara - November 21, 2025

In recent years, Japan has experienced frequent water-related disasters, including earthquake-induced tsunamis and flooding caused by heavy rainfall, increasing the importance of disaster preparedness measures. However, participation in disaster drills remains low, indicating that many citizens do not regard disaster preparedness as a personally relevant issue. In addition, conventional drills often require participants to follow predetermined routes and therefore make it difficult to experience unexpected situations, such as blocked routes or collective behavior during panic. Although disaster simulators using virtual reality (VR) have advanced, few studies have focused on indoor flooding while also considering the influence of other evacuees’ incorrect evacuation behavior. This study therefore developed a simulator that enables users to experience vertical evacuation during indoor flooding in school facilities, which are often designated as evacuation sites. By placing non-player characters (NPCs) that exhibit incorrect evacuation behavior, the simulator makes it possible to examine how the behavior of others may affect participants’ evacuation decisions, subjective difficulty, and sense of urgency. An empirical evaluation clarified the simulator’s potential value for disaster preparedness education and awareness raising, as well as issues requiring further verification.

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Article Biology Life Sciences and Basic Medicine

Pilot study on changes in frontal oxygenated hemoglobin levels in beginners during practice of Karate Forms

by Kiyohisa Natsume - August 12, 2025

Karate exhibits characteristics of several movement forms. This study investigated and compared cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin (∆oxyHb) levels, an indicator of brain activity, during form performances in Karate beginners. Significant increases in ∆oxyHb levels in the frontal region of the brain were observed during the performance of Karate Forms A, B, and C, as well as a radio exercise. Increases during Forms A and B were significantly greater than those during Form C and radio exercise. Rated perceived exertion (RPE) increased from Karate Forms A to C, with radio exercise exhibiting the lowest RPE. Although previous studies have suggested that cerebral ∆oxyHb tends to increase with rated perceived exertion, the relatively smaller ∆oxyHb change observed during Form C might be interpreted as reflecting greater cognitive effort and motor control demands in beginners. The modest ∆oxyHb response during the radio exercise might be related to higher motor familiarity and reduced cognitive requirements. Overall, these observations may imply that Karate practice is capable of engaging frontal brain regions in beginners, and that the degree of activation might be influenced by cognitive effort, motor control load, and familiarity with the movements.

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Article Agriculture Food Sciences Information Sciences Psychology Psychology and Education

Why do you recall that smelly food? Effects of childhood residence region and potential reinforcing effect of marriage

by Yoshinori Miyamura - June 8, 2025

Little is known about why smelly foods have been maintained for long periods of time despite their unpleasant smell. Previous research suggests that regional background and family environment during upbringing influence food selection. Based on those findings, we hypothesized that living in a region where traditional smelly foods are produced and consumed during one's childhood would enhance the recall of such foods in adulthood. Additionally, we proposed that this childhood experience would positively influence the effect of marriage on an individual’s recall of smelly foods. We selected *kusaya* as the chosen smelly food and examined how, as the main effect, living in the Kanto region of Japan until the age of 20 impacts an individual’s *kusaya* recall. Furthermore, we explored the moderating effect of this upbringing on *kusaya* recall and marital status by sequentially inputting variables into a logistic regression model. Both effects were confirmed. This study contributes to the understanding of how characteristic smelly foods can be preserved by clarifying the factors that enhance their recall, using *kusaya* as an example.

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