Pediophobia: A New Challenge Facing Nursing Faculty in Clinical Teaching by Simulation

How does virtual reality simulation compare to simulated practice in the acquisition of clinical psychomotor skills for pre-registration student nurses? A systematic review

“…Aligning closely to experiential learning theory (Kolb, David A., Boyatzis, Richard, E., Mainemelis, 2000;Kolb, 1984), simulated practice allows the learner to partake in a concrete event, reflect on the experience, identify what may have been done differently, and actively experiment, allowing the learning to shape future practice (Poore, Cullen, & Schaar, 2014). Despite the clear advantages of simulated practice, there are a number of potential barriers to learning including fear of technology (Al-Ghareeb & Cooper, 2016), cognitive load, heightened emotion (Fraser et al, 2012), and, rarely, pediophobia or a fear of mannequins (Macy & Schrader, 2008). In addition there are also organisational barriers including faculty training, initial costs and the on-going resource burden of equipment, environments and staffing (Al-Ghareeb & Cooper, 2016).…”

The Uncanny Valley: Existence and Explanations

“…In 2011, the hamburger franchise Burger King retired its huge “King” humanoid mascot from TV advertising, apparently in part because many viewers regarded it as “creepy” (Daily Mail Reporter, 2011). The uncanny valley may also account partly for the widespread clinical phenomena of coulrophobia (fear of clowns; see Moore, 2012) and pediophobia (fear of dolls; Macy & Schrader, 2008) given that clowns and dolls often appear quasihuman. Perhaps not coincidentally, dolls, mannequins, wooden dummies, facially distorted human imposters, and human-like robots featured prominently in the enormously popular 1960s TV series “The Twilight Zone,” which was renowned for eliciting powerful feelings of eeriness in viewers (Wolfe, 1997).…”

A stimulus exposure of 50 ms elicits the uncanny valley effect

“…Fear is a typical response to quasi-humans. Past research has shown that near-human appearances of artificial entities such as dolls [ 1 ], clowns [ 2 ], zombies, and aliens [ 3 ] create feelings of discomfort. More recently, androids, computer generated characters, and avatars have also elicited a similar but distinct kind of eeriness [ 4 ].…”