Can You Feel It?: Effectiveness of Anxiety Cues for the Design of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
Open accessAbstract
Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) has been widely acknowledged as an effective alternative for in vivo exposure therapy (iVET). So far, previous research focused on long- and short-term effectiveness and comparisons to iVET, whereas the impact of design choices is understudied. Hence, the present study focuses on the effectiveness of several types of anxiety cues for the manipulation of anxiety. More specifically, five interoceptive cues (i.e., “fake” bodily sensations for tunnel vision, light flickering, heartbeat audio, blurred vision, and dizziness) and a physical cue (i.e., heat stimulation) are implemented in the VRET design of a within-subjects experiment with people who have claustrophobic and panic tendencies (N = 24). Results show that adding interoceptive cues significantly increased reported levels of anxiety, independent of the type of interoceptive cue. However, introducing a physical cue in VRET can also be effective but has no real added value when combined. Studies focusing on the design of anxiety cues can be valuable in understanding the effectiveness of VRET.
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Morton et al. introduced interoceptive and physical cues in the design process to immerse patients in VRET.
“For instance, Morton et al. introduced interoceptive and physical cues in the design process to immerse patients in the VRET system experience [132].”
From SAFEvR MentalVeRse.app: Development of a Free Immersive Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for Acrophobia and Claustrophobia (2024) · cites this paper as [132]
The Stimulus Materials and Study Design sections describe adding interoceptive cues and a physical heat cue to the VRET experience. However, METHOD Participants says the study recruited people with subclinical tendencies who were not clinically diagnosed or seeking psychotherapy, rather than patients. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 47 · Cited by 2
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Rahani, V.K., Vard, A., Najafi, M. (2018). Claustrophobia Game: Design and development of a new virtual reality game for treatment of Claustrophobia. Journal of Medical Signals & Sensors. doi: 10.4103/jmss. · DOI
- Schmidt, N., Trakowski, J. (2004). Interoceptive assessment and exposure in panic disorder: A descriptive study. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 11, 81-92. doi:10.1016/S1077-7229(04)80010- · DOI
- Authors
- Morton, J., De Letter, J., All, A., Daeseleire, T., Depreeuw, B., Haesen, K., De Marez, L., & Bombeke, K.
- Affiliations
- Ghent University (BE)
- MICT, IMEC, Ghent University, Belgium
- The Human Link, Belgium
- University Psychiatric Centre Duffel, Belgium & The Human Link, Belgium
- Venue
- International Journal of Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Publisher
- IGI Global Scientific Publishing
- Published
- 2021-07
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 1-17
- ISSN
- 2473-537X (ISSN-L)
- 2473-5388
- OpenAlex
- W4213199768
- Cited by
- 2
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 0.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- International Journal of Virtual and Augmented Reality (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen
- Vlaamse regering
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Human-Computer Interaction › Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Keywords
- virtual reality exposure therapy, interoceptive cues, claustrophobia, panic, thermal stimulation, tunnel vision, dizziness, blurred vision, in vivo exposure therapy, virtual reality design
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