Multi-Sensory Virtual Environments for Investigating the Past

[EN] A human depends on all five senses: visuals, audio, smell, taste and touch to perceive an environment. It is not only the individual senses, but also their interaction that plays a key role in enabling us to understand the world around us. Virtual archaeology is being increasingly used to investigate the past. Failure to consider all senses in these reconstructions runs the very real danger of misrepresenting ancient environments and how they may have been perceived by our ancestors. This paper describes Real Virtuality: true high-fidelity multi-sensory virtual environments, and shows how such an approach may give historians a more valid means of considering the past.[ES] Los seres humanos dependemos de los cinco sentidos: vista, oído, olfato, gusto y tacto para percibir el medio ambiente. Estos sentidos y la interacción que se produce entre ellos es lo que desempeña un papel clave en la comprensión del mundo que nos rodea. La Arqueología virtual cada vez se utiliza más para investigar el pasado. Por ello si no tomamos en consideración todos los sentidos a la hora de realizar reconstrucciones virtuales corremos el peligro real de tergiversar los entornos antiguos y la forma en la que estos entornos pudieron haber sido percibidos por nuestros antepasados. Este artículo describe la Virtualidad Real: entornos virtuales multi-sensoriales de gran fidelidad, y muestra cómo este enfoque puede proporcionar a los historiadores un medio más válido para estudiar el pasado.Chalmers, A.; Zányi, E. (2010). Multi-Sensory Virtual Environments for Investigating the Past. Virtual Archaeology Review. 1(1):13-16. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2010.4750OJS131611AGGLETON, J., AND WASKETT, L. (1999): "The ability of odours to serve as state-dependent cues for real-world memories: Can Viking smells aid the recall of Viking experiences? 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A High-Fidelity Virtual Environment for the Study of Paranoia

Psychotic disorders carry social and economic costs for sufferers and society. Recent evidence highlights the risk posed by urban upbringing and social deprivation in the genesis of paranoia and psychosis. Evidence based psychological interventions are often not offered because of a lack of therapists. Virtual reality (VR) environments have been used to treat mental health problems. VR may be a way of understanding the aetiological processes in psychosis and increasing psychotherapeutic resources for its treatment. We developed a high-fidelity virtual reality scenario of an urban street scene to test the hypothesis that virtual urban exposure is able to generate paranoia to a comparable or greater extent than scenarios using indoor scenes. Participants ( = 32) entered the VR scenario for four minutes, after which time their degree of paranoid ideation was assessed. We demonstrated that the virtual reality scenario was able to elicit paranoia in a nonclinical, healthy group and that an urban scene was more likely to lead to higher levels of paranoia than a virtual indoor environment. We suggest that this study offers evidence to support the role of exposure to factors in the urban environment in the genesis and maintenance of psychotic experiences and symptoms. The realistic high-fidelity street scene scenario may offer a useful tool for therapists

A high-fidelity virtual environment for the study of paranoia

Psychotic disorders carry social and economic costs for sufferers and society. Recent evidence highlights the risk posed by urban upbringing and social deprivation in the genesis of paranoia and psychosis. Evidence based psychological interventions are often not offered because of a lack of therapists. Virtual reality (VR) environments have been used to treat mental health problems. VR may be a way of understanding the aetiological processes in psychosis and increasing psychotherapeutic resources for its treatment. We developed a high-fidelity virtual reality scenario of an urban street scene to test the hypothesis that virtual urban exposure is able to generate paranoia to a comparable or greater extent than scenarios using indoor scenes. Participants (η = 32) entered the VR scenario for four minutes, after which time their degree of paranoid ideation was assessed. We demonstrated that the virtual reality scenario was able to elicit paranoia in a nonclinical, healthy group and that an urban scene was more likely to lead to higher levels of paranoia than a virtual indoor environment. We suggest that this study offers evidence to support the role of exposure to factors in the urban environment in the genesis and maintenance of psychotic experiences and symptoms. The realistic high-fidelity street scene scenario may offer a useful tool for therapists