A comparative evaluation of the four measurement methods for comfort and reachability distance perceptions

This study aimed to evaluate the precision, accuracy, and reliability of the common measurement methods for collecting comfort and reachability distances. Four measurement methods were applied in the study: real-life measurement, virtual reality (VR) simulation, the media method, and the paper-and-pencil test. Forty participants were recruited, who were required to determine their comfort and reachability distances when approached by, or actively approaching, confederates under the four methods. The relative error magnitude and mean absolute difference were used to evaluate the precision and accuracy of the methods, respectively. Then, intraclass correlation coefficients were applied to evaluate the reliability of the methods. The ANOVA results showed that the confederate’s gender, method, and pattern all had significant effects on the comfort and reachability distances. The distance obtained by the paper-and-pencil test was the smallest, while the distance measured by the media method was larger. The real-life measurement had high reliability, but its precision performance was worse than that of both the VR simulation and the active media method. The VR simulation had the best precision and reliability, while the measurement value tended to be overestimated. The media method in the passive pattern showed the worst precision, accuracy, and reliability performance among the four methods. The active media method performed well except for accuracy when collecting distance data. The paper-and-pencil test showed erroneous results regarding the precision and reliability performance. These findings provide scientific reference suggestions for the selection of measuring methods for collecting comfort and reachability distances.