Anna Felnhofer

Is virtual reality emotionally arousing? Investigating five emotion inducing virtual park scenarios

Following the idea of using virtual environments (VEs) as mood induction procedures (MIPs), this study set out to examine whether five different virtual park scenarios would each elicit a specific affective state (i.e., joy, sadness, boredom, anger and anxiety). Within this main objective, a subset of two additional goals was identified: first, to analyze whether the sense of presence would differ across emotionally charged VEs, and second, to examine the link between a more objective measure of affective arousal, electrodermal activity (EDA), and presence. Following a between-subject design, 120 students were randomly assigned to one of the five VEs. Results show that almost all of the five virtual park scenarios were able to elicit the intended emotion. Additionally, presence levels were the same across all VEs suggesting that presence did not confound the emotional reaction to the VEs. Furthermore, EDA seems to be a poor indicator of presence as it is not significantly correlated with self-reported presence. The implications of these findings for both future research and practice are addressed in a comprehensive discussion. Four virtual park scenarios elicited the intended emotional states.Presence levels were the same across different virtual environments.Skin conductance level seems to be a poor indicator of presence.

Physical and social presence in collaborative virtual environments: Exploring age and gender differences with respect to empathy

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) hold the immense potential of enhancing social inclusion and social support not only in younger but especially also in older people. However, there is still considerably little knowledge about the experiences of elderly when using CVEs. Additionally, there is reason to assume that men and women regardless of their age might also differ in their perceptions of CVEs, with this difference very likely being mediated by empathic abilities. Consequently, the main objective of the current study was to evaluate gender specific experiences of social and physical presence in a group of older (N=62) and younger adults (N=62) with respect to possible mediating influences of empathy. Results indicate no differences in physical and social presence between the two age groups, yet they support past findings that men experience more spatial presence, involvement and a higher sense of being there than women. Also, the empathy scale Fantasy considerably mediated gender differences in spatial presence, thus strengthening the theoretical assumption of a relationship between presence and empathy. Implications and future directions of these findings are discussed in detail.

Geropsychology: The Gender Gap in Human Aging – A Mini-Review

Differences between women and men in terms of gender gaps at late stages of their lives are the focus of this mini-review. We approach the matter by taking up the position of complex yet promising standpoints, the bio-psycho-social perspective on the one hand and approaches of developmental psychology on the other. Lifespan perspectives and the brain-behavior relationship are integrated and applied to geropsychological models. Research on gender differences is presented and examined, particularly regarding physiological and psychological differences between aging men and women; additionally, gender discrepancies in psychopathology are discussed. Prevailing concepts of ‘active aging’ are introduced and their implications for the review of divergent gender differences are considered.

A virtual training tool for giving talks

In this paper we present two studies concerning the application of a virtual environment for public speaking anxiety. We have created a program simulating a virtual lecture room, which can be filled with a large number of listeners behaving in different ways. The purpose of the scene is to train people who are anxious to give talks in front of a large audience. We present the results of two studies, showing the impact of this kind of virtual exposure. Results indicate that people do experience such a situation as realistic, as well as report social insecurity and show heightened psychophysiological arousal (HR). Furthermore, we show that especially curious people, and people with high social insecurity rate the system as useful.

Debunking Differences between Younger and Older Adults Using a Collaborative Virtual Environment

Collaborative virtual environments allow younger and older people to interact over long distances and stay in contact with their families and friends. Thus, these virtual environments are considered to be both, a crucial factor for active and healthy ageing and a great chance for future developments that may enhance and alter communication for specific age groups. Yet, to date there is a lack of studies examining differences between younger and older adults with special regards to technology usage factors, presence related factors as well as anxiety measures and psychophysiological arousal during social interactions in a collaborative virtual environment. Consequently, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the above mentioned factors in a group of 20 younger and 20 older adults using a slightly stressful collaborative virtual environment. The corresponding results indicate that virtual environments could indeed be beneficial tools for the communication of both, younger and older adults. Yet, older adults reported significantly lower levels of social presence during the interaction and were less able to handle the system than younger adults. Interestingly however, both groups did not differ in their technology related anxiety or regarding physiological measures of stress during the experience of the virtual environment.

Why Does It Always Rain on Me? Influence of Gender and Environmental Factors on Usability, Technology Related Anxiety and Immersion in Virtual Environments

Collaborative virtual environments and technical possibilities in general are still a growing and more and more important influence on everyday life. According to corresponding studies it seems that context conditions as well as individual factors such as gender play an important role in the experience of virtual environments (i.e. immersion and technology-related anxiety) and in the rating of the used technology (i.e. its perceived usefulness). Thus, the objective of the current study was to evaluate the above mentioned factors in a group of 14 women and 14 men using two different emotionally charged collaborative virtual environments. The corresponding results indicate that there are in fact gender differences: Women reported higher levels of technology-related anxiety and immersion. In general, participants in the rainy condition rated the usefulness of the virtual environment higher. Also, women in the rainy condition rated the perceived usefulness higher than women in the cheerful condition whereas in the group of men it was vice versa.

Two Experimental Virtual Paradigms for Stress Research: Developing Avatar-Based Approaches for Interpersonal and Evaluative Stressors

In light of the rather limited ecological validity of paradigms traditionally used for social stress research, the current paper set out to introduce virtual analogues of the Cyberball-Game (Williams 2007) and the Trier Social Stress Test (Kirschbaum, Pirke, and Hellhammer 1993). Both were tested in samples of healthy adults using salivary cortisol, self-reported stress and presence as dependent measures. Results indicate a significant rise in cortisol levels and subjective stress; presence, however, was not correlated with stress reactivity. In sum, this study clearly supports the use of virtual environments in stress research as they offer both the internal control and ecological validity needed to generalize findings to real-world settings.

The virtual schoolyard: attention training in virtual reality for children with attentional disorders

This work presents a virtual reality simulation for training different attentional abilities in children and adolescents. In an interdisciplinary project between psychology and computer science, we developed four mini-games that are used during therapy sessions to battle different aspects of attentional disorders. First experiments show that the immersive game-like application is well received by children. Our tool is also currently part of a treatment program in an ongoing clinical study.

Mehrsprachiges Aufwachsen und Sprachentwicklungsstörungen. Eine Übersichtsarbeit

Multilingual children and language impairment Abstract. For many children with a migration background, difficulties acquiring their second language skills influences their educational success. Because of the wide range of languages and their varieties, which are not described linguistically in detail, development of reliable and valid assessment procedures is hindered. This results in a diagnostic dilemma, as children who have problems learning their second language, along with many other reasons, have to be distinguished from children suffering from a specific language impairment (SLI). Children with migration background may show linguistic profiles which superficially resemble those of children with SLI. The current paper constitutes a selective review of relevant literature and offers suggestions for meeting those respective challenges. It is assumed that the prevalence for clinically relevant language disorder is the same in multilingual as in monolingual children. Also, multilingual children like monolingual children can show subtle cognitive weaknesses. The relevance of language disorder in psychiatrically ill multilingual and monolingual children is well known and has to be considered in the context of a comprehensive assessment. For those children with a migration background who face more pronounced problems acquiring their second language skills, language assessment in their mother tongue is essential.

Elevated oxytocin and noradrenaline indicate higher stress levels in allergic rhinitis patients: Implications for the skin prick diagnosis in a pilot study

Background & Aims The effects of acute stress on allergic symptoms are little understood. The intention of this clinical study was to study the effects of acute stress and related mediators in allergic rhinitis (AR), taking the wheal and flare reaction in skin prick testing (SPT) as a readout. Methods 19 healthy and 21 AR patients were first subjected to SPTs with grass pollen-, birch pollen- and house dust mite allergen extracts, histamine and negative control. Subsequently, participants were exposed to a standardized Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), followed by SPT on the contralateral forearm. Stress responders were identified based on the salivary cortisol levels and State-subscale of State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S). Blood samples were collected before and after TSST and adrenaline, noradrenaline, serotonin, oxytocin, platelet activating factor and prostaglandin D2 were analyzed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Results SPT results of 14/21 allergics and 11/19 healthy who responded with stress after TSST were evaluated. No significant differences regarding SPT to allergens or histamine before and after the stress test could be calculated at the group level. But, the wheal and flare sizes after TSST increased or decreased substantially in several individuals, and unmasked sensitization in one “healthy” person, which could not be correlated with any mediator tested. The most significant finding, however, was that, independent of TSST, the baseline levels of oxytocin and noradrenaline were significantly higher in allergics. Conclusion High baseline levels of noradrenaline points toward higher stress levels in allergic patients, which might be counterregulated by elevated oxytocin. Moreover, our data indicate that acute stress may have a significant influence on SPT fidelity in susceptible individuals.