Learning empathy through virtual reality : Multiple strategies for training empathy-related abilities using body ownership Illusions in embodied virtual reality

Several disciplines have investigated the interconnected empathic abilities behind the proverb “to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” to determine how the presence, and absence, of empathy-related phenomena affect prosocial behavior and intergroup relations. Empathy enables us to learn from others’ pain and to know when to offer support. Similarly, virtual reality (VR) appears to allow individuals to step into someone else’s shoes, through a perceptual illusion called embodiment, or the body ownership illusion. Considering these perspectives, we propose a theoretical analysis of different mechanisms of empathic practices in order to define a possible framework for the design of empathic training in VR. This is not intended to be an extensive review of all types of practices, but an exploration of empathy and empathy-related phenomena. Empathy-related training practices are analyzed and categorized. We also identify different variables used by pioneer studies in VR to promote empathy-related responses. Finally, we propose strategies for using embodied VR technology to train specific empathy-related abilities

Studies in Generalised Metric Spaces

A generalised metric space (∝-metric space) is a metric space where the metric takes its values in an ordered abelian group. In this thesis we give a survey of these spaces, giving particular emphasis to the way in which ordinary metric space theorems have to modified. As this study is a survey, a number of the results are not original but the approach is new. Some results are modifications and/or simplifications of known results. When this is so the original proof will usually be summarised and comparisons made. The main new contributions are the use of the ∝-product to characterize certain ordered abelian groups; the use of the ∝-product in the proof of the topological ∝metrization theorem; and the treatment of the completion of ∝metric spaces. The uniform ∝metrization theorem was proved but it has been discovered that this result has been published recently. In the first chapter we give an introduction and define the basic concepts and then, in the next two chapters, we develop the theory of convergence and the required topological properties. The fourth chapter is devoted to ordered abelian groups and the last two chapters discuss the important question of metrization (uniform and topological respectively)