Attention and Social Cognition in Virtual Reality:The effect of engagement mode and character eye-gaze

Technical developments in virtual humans are manifest in modern character design. Specifically, eye gaze offers a significant aspect of such design. There is need to consider the contribution of participant control of engagement. In the current study, we manipulated participants’ engagement with an interactive virtual reality narrative called Coffee without Words. Participants sat over coffee opposite a character in a virtual café, where they waited for their bus to be repaired. We manipulated character eye-contact with the participant. For half the participants in each condition, the character made no eye-contact for the duration of the story. For the other half, the character responded to participant eye-gaze by making and holding eye contact in return. To explore how participant engagement interacted with this manipulation, half the participants in each condition were instructed to appraise their experience as an artefact (i.e., drawing attention to technical features), while the other half were introduced to the fictional character, the narrative, and the setting as though they were real. This study allowed us to explore the contributions of character features (interactivity through eye-gaze) and cognition (attention/engagement) to the participants’ perception of realism, feelings of presence, time duration, and the extent to which they engaged with the character and represented their mental states (Theory of Mind). Importantly it does so using a highly controlled yet ecologically valid virtual experience

Virtual Representations for Cybertherapy: A Relaxation Experience for Dementia Patients

The development of serious games has enabled new challenges for the healthcare sector in psychological, cognitive and motor rehabilitation. Thanks to Virtual Reality, stimulating and interactive experiences can be reproduced in a safe and controlled environment. This chapter illustrates the experimentation conducted in the hospital setting for the non-pharmacological treatment of cognitive disorders associated with Dementia. The therapy aims to relax patients of the agitation cluster through a gaming approach through the immersion in multisensory and natural settings in which sound and visual stimuli are provided. The study is supported by a technological architecture, including the Virtual Wall system for stereoscopic wall projection and rigid body tracking

Cyberterapia jako nowoczesna forma terapii

Online searching for explanations of failures and crises experienced in daily life leads one to websites offering cybertherapy. The therapy is aimed at people who, for different reasons (e.g. lack of time, shyness), do not wish to have a face-to-face session with the psychotherapist. The main goal of the analysis was the problem of providing the aforementioned psychotherapy. By means of PubMed/MEDLINE, Wiley Online Library, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar science databases, we have searched through Polish and abroad references from 2010-2017 for articles discussing the problem of online psychotherapy. Online psychotherapy possesses many different forms. It can be provided via e-mail, live video session (Skype), chatting or text messages (SMS). The main benefit of e-therapy is its swiftness concentrated on short-term contact. Furthermore, the price is also attractive in comparison to the therapy delivered by traditional means. On the other hand, it has its drawbacks, e.g. lack of emotional contact between the patient and psychotherapist, impersonal relationship and the chance of misunderstandings

Study of gender differences in VR response following cardiac surgery

Cardiac and other invasive surgical procedures cause significant anxiety and stress to patients and their family members. In this study Virtual Reality (VR) was used as a method to reduce stress, anxiety and pain in patients undergoing surgical procedures. This study compared a cohort of patients in the interval prior to and successive to the surgery, differentiating the responses achieved by males and females and comparing the effectiveness. The results are encouraging: they demonstrate the efficacy of VR treatment and the safety of the method and detection of differences in the responses based on gender

Critical Success Factors for Electronic Therapy—A Delphi Study

E-therapy employs a cross-section of online psychotherapies that use many of the same traditional face-to-face techniques as psychotherapy by exploiting electronic synchronous communication between a patient and trained therapists (counselors, psychoanalyst’s, or other licensed practitioners). A Delphi study of practicing therapists revealed five critical success factors (CSFs) (technological, managerial, empathic, service quality, and legal) that are important influences in the implementation of e-therapy services. Results suggest that managerial and legal factors hinder wider acceptance of e-therapy services. Secure and effective communication channels and protection of patient data emerge as important themes in the context of the five CSFs as concerns of potential e-therapists in wanting to provide effective care to patients