Public speaking anxiety decreases within repeated virtual reality training sessions

Abstract

Therapy for public speaking phobia using virtual reality exposure (VRE) has focused on distress arousal rather than distress habituation. Understanding habituation will help optimise session duration, making treatment more affordable and accessible. This pilot study utilised within-speech repeated measures to examine distress habituation during three brief public speaking scenarios in a non-clinical sample ( n = 19; 18–76 years). VRE elicited significant distress in all three scenarios. Although within-scenario distress habituation was not observed, between-scenario habituation was partially supported. An increase in distress during the second scenario indicated that three consecutive speech performances were critical in achieving habituation. Brief repeated VRE scenarios using an agent audience were effective in eliciting public speaking distress, as well as habituation.

Virtual Reality exposure therapy for public speaking anxiety in routine care: a single-subject effectiveness trial

“…In addition to the wealth of experimental support for this approach over habituation (Craske et al, 2014) -although challenged by recent research (Scheveneels et al, 2019)-this decision was also based on a hypothesis, supported by the physiological findings from the pilot replication study in adolescents (Kahlon et al, 2019), that the VR public speaking paradigm would not evoke a physiological response on par with real-life public speaking, even among users with severe PSA. While previous research has shown that VR public speaking does evoke a significant physiological and subjective fear response, this response is small in terms of absolute numbers (Owens & Beidel, 2015;Takac et al, 2019) and lower than that observed in for example PTSD (Rauch et al, 2018). Arguably, this contrast is due both to the complexity of presenting human stimuli from a graphical perspective (Seyama & Nagayama, 2007), and that many of the most common catastrophic beliefs related to public speaking concern perception by others (Stein et al, 1996), which may be hard to evoke when the user knows that the audience are not real people.…”

Emotion Recognition in Immersive Virtual Reality: From Statistics to Affective Computing

“…On the other hand, the level of interactivity that 3D scenarios offer can be very useful in applied research, since they display more naturalistic and interactive environments, facilitating decision-making research and the analysis of daily situations. Taking some examples, Takac et al [ 137 ] analysed the anxiety felt by speakers when faced by large audiences, Lin et al [ 133 ] analysed the stress felt by individuals when in a building on fire scenario and Kisker et al [ 130 ] analysed arousal in an exposure to a high height.…”

Virtual Reality Treatment for Public Speaking Anxiety in Students. Advancements and Results in Personalized Medicine

“…Among the virtual environments generated with VR, most researches recreated a virtual classroom and an auditorium with a fictitious audience [20,21]. In addition, other studies virtualized everyday situations, which were made possible by the realism of the interactions [22,23].…”

“…In addition, 360º recording technology generates virtual environments with greater realism [8]. These environments are so real that some studies claim that virtual spectators in a classroom can affect people's beliefs, anxiety, and behavior [7,22,23]. Unlike in vivo exposure techniques, VR generates virtual environments that favor privacy, avoid public embarrassment, and maintain patient confidentiality [24].…”