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Virtual buddy improved exercise performance
Kinesiology researchers found that exercising alongside a virtual buddy improved stamina and exercise performance, showing a significant gain in motivation that could support an improved fitness regimen.
Study participants exercised alongside “cyber buddies” who were rendered realistically or as a cartoon, and both virtual aides encouraged longer, more challenging exercise.
Deborah L. Feltz, PhD, and colleagues from Michigan State University designed a study that would motivate exercising participants through a playful, partnered “exergame.” Researchers identified that the Köhler effect — an effect created when one person working at a task with a more capable partner is challenged to make an indispensable contribution to the group effort — motivated participants to exert themselves harder. The “CyBuddy Exercise” computer program was developed specifically for this study.
Deborah L. Feltz
Photo by G.L. Kohuth.
The study included 120 college students (mean age, 19.41 years) who were asked to complete a series of abdominal strength exercises. After a rest, the study participants were challenged to repeat the exercises alongside either a video of a human, a realistic human-like virtual animation, a cartoon-like animation or a nonpartnered control condition. Researchers also inquired about each participant’s levels of belief in the cyber buddy, enjoyment, self-efficacy (ability to succeed at exercise) and intention to exercise.
Statistical analysis revealed that all virtually partnered exercises showed significant gains in physical performance, meaning that participants were willing to hold challenging plank-pose abdominal exercises longer.
Results were most significantly improved when participants were paired with the video of the actual human (P<.05), although the human-like and cartoon-like animations did elicit lesser performance improvement, the researchers said.
Notably, findings did not show an improvement in feelings of perceived exertion, self-efficacy, enjoyment or future intention to exercise. Participants who were exposed only to the virtual representations overall reported lower feelings of self-efficacy than participants who had experienced some exposure to the video of a human.
“Even though participants paired with a human partner held their planks, on average, 1 minute and 20 seconds longer than those with no partner, those paired with one of the software-generated buddies still held on, on average, 33 seconds longer,” Feltz said in a press release. “We know that people tend to show more effort during exercise when there are other partners involved because their performance hinges on how the entire team does. The fact that a nonhuman partner can have a similar effect is encouraging.”
Disclosure: This study was supported in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.