Maja Wrzesien

Learning in serious virtual worlds: Evaluation of learning effectiveness and appeal to students in the E-Junior project

The objective of this study is to present and to evaluate the E-Junior application: a serious virtual world (SVW) for teaching children natural science and ecology. E-Junior was designed according to pedagogical theories and curricular objectives to help children learn about the Mediterranean Sea and its environmental issues while playing. In this study, we present data about the E-Junior evaluation. A class in a serious virtual world (virtual group) was compared with a traditional type of class (traditional group) that contained identical learning objectives and contents but lacked a gaming aspect. Data collection consisted of quantitative and qualitative measures on a sample of 48 children. With regards to learning effectiveness, the results showed that the serious virtual world does not present statistically significant differences with the traditional type of class. However, students from the virtual group reported enjoying the class more, being more engaged, and having greater intentions to participate than students from the traditional group. The plausible explanation for this can be found in the qualitative data. The implications of these results and improvement proposals are also discussed in this work.

The Therapeutic Lamp: Treating Small-Animal Phobias

We all have an irrational fear or two. Some of us get scared by an unexpected visit from a spider in our house; others get nervous when they look down from a high building. Fear is an evolutionary and adaptive function that can promote self-preservation and help us deal with the feared object or situation. However, when this state becomes excessive, it might develop into psychological disorders such as phobias, producing high anxiety and affecting everyday life. The Therapeutic Lamp is an interactive projection-based augmented-reality system for treating small-animal phobias. It aims to increase patient-therapist communication, promote more natural interaction, and improve the patients engagement in the therapy.

A VR-Based Serious Game for Studying Emotional Regulation in Adolescents

People all use more or less adapted strategies to confront adverse emotional situations in their lives without being psychologically affected. The emotional regulation (ER) strategies that we use determine the way in which we feel, express, and behave. Moreover, ER strategies are particularly important in adolescents, a population for which ER strategy deficits can be linked to the appearance of numerous mental health disorders, such as depression or anxiety, or disruptive behaviors. Thus, the early detection of dysfunctional ER strategies and training in adaptive ER strategies can help prevent future occurrences of possible behavioral and psychosocial disorders. In this article, the authors present the GameTeen System (GT-System), a novel instrument based on virtual reality and serious games for the assessment and training of ER strategies in adolescents. The results of their preliminary evaluation suggest that this system can effectively train and evaluate emotional regulation strategies in adolescents.

Treating small animal phobias using a projective-augmented reality system

Significant improvement after the treatment and follow ups.Comparable results to other clinical studies.Advantages of the system over existing therapies.More natural interactions with the system than in other existing technologies. In vivo exposure is the evidence based treatment for small animal phobias. However, this type of treatment still present a low treatment seek rate and a high drop-out rate, due to its aversive character for the patients. New technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have started to show their potential in anxiety disorders, including small animal phobia treatment and have demonstrated their efficacy. However, these systems still present limitations regarding the possibility to offer an optimal therapy to the phobia sufferers. This study evaluates the clinical efficacy of new AR exposure therapy - a projection-based system (P-ARET) for small animal phobias in the short (post-treatment), and long term (3- and 12-month follow-up). Four patients diagnosed with cockroach phobia participated in this pilot treatment study. The results show that all patients improved significantly in main outcome measures after the treatment. The study also follows a strategy of benchmarking, in which the results obtained from the evaluation of the P-ARET system in clinical setting are compared with two other clinically validated phobia therapies (traditional, in vivo exposure therapy (IVET); virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET); and AR exposure therapy with the use of a head-mounted display (HMD-ARET). The results indicate that the clinical effectiveness of new projection-based AR system for small animal phobia treatment was comparable to those achieved by the therapeutic conditions in other studies. However, the P-ARET system brings some advantages in terms of patient-therapist communication and more natural interaction with the system.

How the physical similarity of avatars can influence the learning of emotion regulation strategies in teenagers

Greater emotion regulation when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater frustration induction when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater physical identification with physically similar avatar.Significant change in brain when observing a physically similar avatar. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of the physical similarity of avatars with the user on emotion regulation strategy training. In this study twenty-four teenagers observed an avatar (either physically similar to the participant or neutral) that gets frustrated with his/her computer, after which he/she applies an emotion regulation strategy (slow breathing). The intensity of the emotional induction and regulation processes was measured using questionnaires and electroencephalogram data. The results show that observing an avatar that is physically similar to the participant has a significantly greater impact on emotional valence and arousal in participants and also induces emotional states that are significantly more intense than when observing a neutral avatar. The results seem to indicate significantly greater activation of specific brain regions that are related to these processes and greater identification with the avatar in terms of both subjective and objective measures in participants that observed an avatar that was physically similar to them. However, there were no significant differences in the sense of presence or the appeal (i.e., satisfaction) to participants regarding the virtual environment. The use of avatars in mental health applications is relatively new and its specific influence is still unknown. We consider this study to be a first step forward in better understanding the use of avatars in mental health applications for youth. This research brings new guidelines to the design of different types of applications in this field in order to achieve greater behavioral changes in youth.

A Pilot Evaluation of a Therapeutic Game Applied to Small Animal Phobia Treatment

This study presents Catch Me game, a therapeutic game for teaching patients how to confront to their feared animals during spider and cockroach phobia treatment, and evaluates whether inclusion of gaming elements into therapeutic protocol does have an added value for the treatment. The Catch Me game was designed in order to help patients learn about their feared animals and to learn how to apply adapted confrontation strategies and techniques with the lowest possible anxiety level. In this study, Catch Me game was evaluated in terms of knowledge acquisition, anxiety level, self-efficacy belief acquisition, and appeal to both participants and therapists. Data collection consisted of quantitative measures on a sample of 14 non-clinical population. The results showed that the game significantly improved knowledge and self-efficacy belief regarding the feared animal, and significantly decreased the anxiety level of participants. Moreover, both participants and the therapists were highly satisfied with the game.

GameTeen: new tools for evaluating and training emotional regulation strategies.

The aim of this paper is to describe GameTeen, a novel instrument for the assessment and training of Emotional Regulation (ER) strategies in adolescent population. These new tools are based on the use of 3D serious games that can be played under different settings. The evolution of ER strategies will be monitored in two ways depending on the setting where the tool is presented. Firstly, in the laboratory, physiological signals and facial expressions of participants will be recorded. Secondly, in real life settings, ecological momentary assessment tools will be used to obtain answers from the subjects using their mobile phone. The goal is to obtain more attractive and reliable tools to evaluate and train ER strategies.

E-Junior: a serious virtual world for natural science and ecology learning

The objective of this study is to present the E-Junior application: a serious virtual world (SVW) for teaching children natural science and ecology. E-Junior was designed according to pedagogical theories and curricular objectives in order to help students learn about the Mediterranean Sea and its ecological issues while playing. In this paper, we present the technical description of E-Junior and its pedagogical and curricular foundations.

Towards a Virtual Reality- and Augmented Reality-Mediated Therapeutic Process model: a theoretical revision of clinical issues and HCI issues

A substantial body of empirical research now supports the importance of client and therapist characteristics as well as the therapeutic relationship between them in predicting therapeutic change. Recent studies have increasingly recognised Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) as potentially effective technologies in the treatment of specific phobias. Despite these results, there is little theoretical and empirical understanding of how technologies actually support the users (i.e., client and therapist) in their respective but closely related activities; how they are actually used; and how they modify the therapeutic process. This article reviews the state of the art related to both the Human–Computer Interactions issues and the clinical aspects of the therapeutic process in both technology-mediated and non-mediated contexts, and proposes the theoretical model of the VR/AR-Mediated Therapeutic Process, which integrates the concepts from both fields. The applications and relevancy of this model are also discussed.

Virtual representations of the self: engaging teenagers in emotional regulation strategies learning

The aim of this paper is to present digital representations of humans (i.e., avatars) that look like the self, applied to the Mental Health (MH) field. Virtual Representations of the Self (VRS) are in our opinion a tool with a great potential for engaging teenagers in emotional regulation strategies learning and an excellent example of new technology application to the basic concept in psychology field such as Banduras modeling [1]. VRSs have already demonstrated their potential on human behavior modification (e.g. modification of physical activity; eating habits) in general population [2]. Thus, the same technology can bring in our opinion a lot to the Mental Health field, especially in emotional regulation learning. This paper presents a theoretical background and describes the methodology that we plan to apply in order to validate the efficacy of VRSs in clinical settings. Also, the implications of such technology and future research lines are discussed.