Inducing Fear: Cardboard Virtual Reality and 2D Video

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2013

Learning to regulate one's emotions under threatening circumstances is important, among others, for professionals like police officers and military personnel. To explore the opportunities of Virtual Reality-based training for such professionals, this paper describes an experiment performed to investigate the impact of virtual training on participants' experienced emotional responses in threatening situations. A set of 15 participants was asked to rate the subjective emotional intensity of a set of affective pictures at two different time points, separated by six hours. The participants were divided into three groups: the first group performed a session of virtual training in between, in which they received a choice-reaction task, the second group performed a session of virtual training, in which they had to apply reappraisal strategies, and a control group did not have any training session. The results indicate that the reappraisal-based training caused the participants in that group to give significantly lower ratings for the emotional intensity of the negative pictures, whereas the content-based training resulted in significantly higher ratings compared to the group without training. Moreover, a second experiment, performed with the same participants six months later, indicated that these effects are fairly persistent over time, and that they transfer to different pictures with similar characteristics.

2016

This paper presents a study which explores the physiological and behavioural indicators of anxiety during exposure to a virtual reality environment. Using 10 participants (5 with acrophobia and 5 control) the study aimed to determine whether an increase in heart rate (HR) from baseline to VR exposure is a sufficient measure for effectiveness of a virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) stimulus, or whether there is a mediating effect of neutral VR exposure which should be taken into account. The participants all explored an immersive cityscape at ground level and at height, and both subjective and objective measures of physiological arousal were recorded. It was found that the VRET was successful in inducing an anxiety response in the participants with acrophobia, and moreover demonstrated that an increase in HR from baseline to VRET on its own should not be considered a reliable indicator of VRET efficacy, but that there should be an adjustment for the effect of neutral VR exposure on physiological arousal. This "virtual reality exposure therapy" (VRET) is being increasingly used to treat a variety of phobias and anxiety disorders (e.g.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007

Warnings are a very important method to control hazards and to promote safety. Despite its importance, warnings have important gaps that limit their validity and make its design so difficult. In this sense, warnings effectiveness evaluation is crucial to guarantee effective people safety. However, warnings traditional evaluation methodologies have several limitations. To this extent, the main purpose of this work is to determine Virtual Reality (VR) ecological validity as a warnings evaluation technique. We describe a methodology that uses VR as a technique to evaluate safety signs. The main advantages of VR use, associated with the interaction level, are discussed.

Frontiers in Virtual Reality, 2022

2015

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) for training is increasingly common in the military and in emergency operator fields. One of the main problems with the use of VR for training is the fact that the technology, although advanced, is not enough on its own. Technological aspects like fidelity and sensorial realism are certainly important in developing effective training techniques, but there are others that need to be considered. Focusing on human factors from the earliest stages of designing VR training can increase effectiveness and reduce the possibility of ineffective or even harmful effects of the training. This approach, called "Human-Centered VR Training Design," is characterized by being both multimodal (i.e., oriented to several aspects of user experience) and multilevel (i.e., based on the integrated use of technical and methodological solutions); it has undergone preliminary testing by Selex ES within the project Minerva in collaboration with psychological researchers at the

Behavioural Neurology

The increasing role of virtual environments in society, especially in the context of the pandemic and evolving metaverse technologies, requires a closer study of the physiological state of humans using virtual reality (VR) for entertainment, work, or learning. Despite the fact that many physiological reactions to the content presented in various modalities under VR conditions have already been described, often these studies do not reflect the full range of changes in the physiological reactions that occur to a person during their immersion in the virtual world. This study was designed to find and compare the most sensitive physiological indicators that change when viewing an emotionally intense video fragment in standard format on screen and in virtual reality conditions (in a VR helmet). The research methodology involved randomly presenting a group of subjects with visual content—a short video clip—first on screen (2D) and then in a virtual reality helmet (3D). A special feature of...

Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2010

Fear conditioning is a widely used paradigm in non-human animal research to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying fear and anxiety. A major challenge in conducting conditioning studies in humans is the ability to strongly manipulate or simulate the environmental contexts that are associated with conditioned emotional behaviors. In this regard, virtual reality (VR) technology is a promising tool. Yet, adapting this technology to meet experimental constraints requires special accommodations. Here we address the methodological issues involved when conducting fear conditioning in a fully immersive 6-sided VR environment and present fear conditioning data.

Human Factors and …, 2010

2005

Combat environments by their nature can produce a dramatic range of emotional responses in military personnel. When immersed in the emotional "fog of war", the potential exists for optimal human decision-making and performance of goal-directed activities to be seriously compromised. This may be especially true when combat training is conducted under conditions that lack emotional engagement by the soldier. Real world military training often naturally includes stress induction that aims to promote a similarity of internal emotional stimulus cues with what is expected to be present on the battlefield. This approach to facilitating optimal training effectiveness is supported by a long history of learning theory research. Current Virtual Reality military training approaches are noteworthy in their emphasis on creating hi-fidelity graphic and audio realism with the aim to foster better transfer of training. However, less emphasis is typically placed on the creation of emotionally evocative virtual training scenarios that can induce emotional stress in a manner similar to what is typically experienced under real world training conditions. As well, emotional issues in the post-combat aftermath need to be addressed, as can be seen in the devastating emotional difficulties that occur in some military personnel following combat. This is evidenced by the number of recent medical reports that suggest the incidence of "Vietnam-levels" of combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptomatology in returning military personnel from the Iraq conflict. In view of these issues, the USC Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) has initiated a research program to study emotional issues that are relevant to VR military applications. This paper will present the rationale and status of two ongoing VR research programs at the ICT that address sharply contrasting ends of the emotional spectrum relevant to the military: 1. The Sensory Environments Evaluation (SEE) Project is examining basic factors that underlie emotion as it occurs within VR training environments and how this could impact transfer of training, and 2. The Full Spectrum Warrior (FSW) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Project which is currently in the process of converting the existing FSW combat tactical simulation training scenario (and X-Box game) into a VR treatment system for the conduct of graduated exposure therapy in Iraq war military personnel with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 2010

Background: There are several useful methods to induce anxiety in patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). Our aim was to ascertain if a computer simulation (CS) could induce anxiety and physiologic alterations in PDA patients. Methods: 10 healthy controls (HC) and 10 patients who fulfilled DSM-IV criteria for PDA were recruited for this study. The anxiety level was measured with the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) and the Diagnostic Symptom Questionnaire (DSQ) was used to ascertain panic attack (PA) symptoms. The heart rate, skin conductance and respiration were monitored during exposure to the CS. The CS was a 3D computer animation of a short bus trip, from a first person perspective. Results: In PDA patients CS exposure increased anxiety levels, they also had higher scores in the DSQ and two of them had PA. Compared to the HC, the PDA patients had higher skin conductance level, electrodermal response magnitude, respiratory rate, tidal volume, and respiratory rate irregularities. The heart rate means were higher for PDA patients who had PA, followed by HC and PDA patients who did not have PA. There were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the sense of presence. Limitations: The main limitations were the small sample size, and some PDA patients under medications.