Analysis of Physiological Responses to a Social Situation in an Immersive Virtual Environment

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in a Cave-like environment to explore the relationship between physiological responses and each of breaks in presence, and utterances by virtual characters towards the participants. Twenty people explored a virtual environment (VE) that depicted a virtual bar scenario. The experiment was divided into a training and an experimental phase.During the experimental phase breaks in presence (BIPs) in form of whiteouts of the VE scenario were induced for 2 seconds at four equally spaced times during the approximate 5 minutes in the bar scenario. Additionally 5 virtual characters addressed remarks at the subjects. Physiological measures including ECG and GSR were recorded throughout the whole experiment. The heart rate, the heart rate variability and the event-related heart rate changes were calculated from the acquired ECG data. The frequency response of the GSR signal was calculated with a wavelet analysis. The study shows that the heart rate and heart rate variability parameters vary significantly between the training and experimental phase.GSR parameters and event-related heart rate changes show the occurrence of breaks in presence. Event-related heart rate changes also signified the virtual character utterances.There were also differences in response observed between more and less social phobic participants.

Terapia de Exposición Mediante Realidad Virtual e Internet en el Trastorno de Ansiedad/Fobia Social: Una Revisión Cualitativa

“…En el estudio 12 -tabla 1- (Slater et al, 2006), el participante era inmerso en una escena virtual que consistía en un bar con un barman y dos parejas virtuales. Estos avatares (2 mujeres y 2 hombres) daban la impresión de tener consciencia de la presencia del sujeto y frecuentemente dirigían su mirada hacia él.…”

Prerequisites for Affective Signal Processing (Asp)

“…In the pursuit to trigger emotions in a more or less controlled manner, a range of methods have been applied: actors, images (IAPS), sounds (e.g., music), (fragments of) movies (Westerink et al, 2008b), speech (Van den Broek, 2004), commercials (Hazlett andHazlett, 1999;Poels and Dewitte, 2006), games, agents / serious gaming / virtual reality (Slater et al, 2006;Westerink et al, 2008a), reliving of emotions ( Van den Broek, 2004), and real world experiences (Healey and Picard, 2005); see also Box 1. However, how to know which of these methods actually triggered participants' true emotions?…”

“…Hence, we advise to record three affective signals, or have at least three features derived from them, for each construct under investigation, in well controlled research. Moreover, qualitative and subjective measures should accompany the signals (e.g., questionnaires, video recordings, interviews, and Likert scales); e.g., see (Hazlett and Hazlett, 1999;Healey and Picard, 2005;Slater et al, 2006;Van den Broek, 2004;Westerink et al, 2008a). Please consult also Section 3.1 on this topic.…”

“…Beside validation and triangulation, another way to deal with this is to employ a more physiologydriven perspective (Tractinsky, 2004). Instead of expressing the goals of ASP directly in terms of affective states, they can often be stated in terms of the affective signals themselves (Slater et al, 2006). For instance, instead of inferring an air-traffic controller's or driver's stress level, thresholding SCL might be sufficient; see also Box 1.…”

The Effect on Lower Spine Muscle Activation of Walking on a Narrow Beam in Virtual Reality

“…A visual cliff type of environment has been used where participants were in an IVE that shows a precipice, and their heart rate increased significantly [13][14][15]. Both skin conductance, heart rate and heart rate variability have been shown to respond significantly in the context of general social situations [16], and social situations that are highly stressful [17]. It has also been found that there are similarities in behavior when participants play handball in virtual reality compared to physical reality [18].…”