Smokers', vapers', and non-users' reactions to vaping cues presented in virtual reality

The experiment will be a single, individual, in-person session at the Human Interface Technology Laboratory of the University of Canterbury, during which participants' responses to exposure to vaping cues will be recorded. Three environments have been developed in virtual reality (VR): a bar, a park, and a vape shop. All environments contain multiple vaping cues: for example, poster advertisements, avatars vaping, and televisions showing various vaping tricks (where the vapour is exhaled in a specific form). Participants will be exposed to each of those environments, in randomised order, and with a distraction scene in between each environment. Each of the environments takes approximately 4 minutes; the distraction scenes take 2 minutes each; and the introduction scene, which does not contain any cues but is presented at the very start of the trial so participants can familiarise themselves with virtual reality, takes 4 minutes. Thus in total, exposure will take 22 minutes (introduction, 4 times distraction, 3 cue exposure environments). During exposure to the environments, heart rate variability (HRV), skin conductance (SC), and pupil dilation will be measured 4 times/second; subjective craving will be assessed in VR every 50 seconds; and eye tracking will register whether participants are looking at a vaping cue 4 times/second as well. HRV and SC will be measured with the Empatica E4 wristband; pupil dilation and eye tracking through the Vive Pro VR headset; and for subjective craving participants indicate how much they crave a vape on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 100 (extremely much). Since the only way of non-adherence for the participant would be to close their eyes and refuse to look at the environments, eye tracking will be used to check if participants paid any attention (however passive).