Virtual Reality and Collaborative Learning in Higher Education: A Research Thesis Proposal

For the past forty years, research has revealed many ways in which Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can be utilized to support and enhance education. Similarly, Virtual Reality (VR) technology has proven promising for different educational purposes. These affordances, however, tend to change when the technology behind them...

The Effect of an Adaptive Simulated Inner Voice on User's Eye-gaze Behaviour, Ownership Perception and Plausibility Judgement in Virtual Reality

Virtual cognitions (VCs) are a stream of simulated thoughts people hear while emerged in a virtual environment, e.g. by hearing a simulated inner voice presented as a voice over. They can enhance people's self-efficacy and knowledge about, for example, social interactions as previous studies have shown. Ownership and plausibility of these VCs...

Simulated thoughts in virtual reality for negotiation training enhance self-efficacy and knowledge

Negotiating serves as an essential skill in our daily life, however, it is quite challenging to negotiate well. Various negotiation training systems have been developed to solve this problem and improve people's performance in negotiation. Nevertheless, these systems mainly focus on skills practice and less on negotiation understanding or...

A Therapy System for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Using a Virtual Agent and Virtual Storytelling to Reconstruct Traumatic Memories

Although post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is well treatable, many people do not get the desired treatment due to barriers to care (such as stigma and cost). This paper presents a system that bridges this gap by enabling patients to follow therapy at home. A therapist is only involved remotely, to monitor progress and serve as a safety...

Virtual bystanders in a language lesson: Examining the effect of social evaluation, vicarious experience, cognitive consistency and praising on students' beliefs, self-efficacy and anxiety in a virtual reality environment

Bystanders in a real world's social setting have the ability to influence people’s beliefs and behavior. This study examines whether this effect can be recreated in a virtual environment, by exposing people to virtual bystanders in a classroom setting. Participants (n = 26) first witnessed virtual students answering questions from an English...

Sense of presence and anxiety during virtual social interactions between a human and virtual humans

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has been shown to be effective in treatment of anxiety disorders. Yet, there is lack of research on the extent to which interaction between the individual and virtual humans can be successfully implanted to increase levels of anxiety for therapeutic purposes. This proof-of-concept pilot study aimed at...

Single versus multimodality training basic laparoscopic skills

Introduction - Even though literature provides compelling evidence of the value of simulators for training of basic laparoscopic skills, the best way to incorporate them into a surgical curriculum is unclear. This study compares the training outcome of single modality training with multimodality training of basic laparoscopic skills. Methods -...

Design and evaluation of a virtual reality exposure therapy system with automatic free speech interaction

Research on Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) to treat social phobia is not new. Still few studies focus on creating an elaborate conversation between the patient and characters in a virtual environment. This study focuses on techniques to run a semi-scripted conversation between virtual characters and a patient considering both manual and...

Physiological measures and self-report to evaluate neutral virtual reality worlds

Using virtual reality technology for exposure therapy to treat patients with anxiety disorders is attracting considerable research attention. The ability to monitor patient anxiety level helps therapists to set appropriate anxiety arousing situations. Physiological measures have been put forward as objective indicators of anxiety levels. Because...

Using virtual reality to study paranoia in individuals with and without psychosis

A virtual reality environment was created to study psychotic symptoms of patients that experience psychosis. In the environment people could navigate through a bar with a gamepad while wearing a head mounted display. Their task was to find five virtual characters that have a small label number on their chest. The density and ethnic appearance of...

Design and evaluation of a virtual environment for the treatment of anger

Cognitive-behavioural therapy is often used for anger treatment. An important element of this therapy is exposure to anger evoking stimuli. In this paper virtual reality is put forward as a technology that can effectively create these stimuli by exposing patients to social scenes that include anger stressors such as aggressive dialogues with...