Publicação
Yuck!: using virtual reality to support the exploration of prospective memory and contamination
| Resumo: | Throughout history, humans, similarly to physical adaptations, developed in a way that helped us survive and avoid life-threatening situations, as an example, pathogens are a major threat to which we must adapt even today with the recent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. In that regard, humans have developed what is known as the Biological Immune System (BIS). To further the understanding of the BIS, the Experimental Psychology field conducts various experiments which consist of presenting various objects that are described as being in contact with either a contaminated person or a healthy person. This method traditionally relied on photographs accompanied with a backstory related to the object presented which requires an imaginative effort from the participants that tends to affect the experiment since it is not a realistic scenario. The current work presents a solution that supports the experimental protocol in a virtual environment to help move the experiments from the traditional approach to a more realistic and ecologically valid environment utilizing 360° videos as the stimuli during the experiments. To reach that goal, a set of modules were developed and expanded on to enable the researchers to set up, control and supervise the experiments in real time. The system was developed in a close collaborative effort with the Mnemonic Tuning for Contamination (MTC) team and later during development was partially evaluated by the team alongside six psychology students. The outcome of said evaluation was positive and enabled, after a few tweaks, to move on to an evaluation involving 23 participants which also yielded good results. |
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| Autores principais: | Housameddine, Kouki |
| Assunto: | Virtual reality 360º videos Behavioral immune system Memory Experimental psychology |
| Ano: | 2023 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade de Aveiro |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RIA - Repositório Institucional da Universidade de Aveiro |
| Resumo: | Throughout history, humans, similarly to physical adaptations, developed in a way that helped us survive and avoid life-threatening situations, as an example, pathogens are a major threat to which we must adapt even today with the recent SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. In that regard, humans have developed what is known as the Biological Immune System (BIS). To further the understanding of the BIS, the Experimental Psychology field conducts various experiments which consist of presenting various objects that are described as being in contact with either a contaminated person or a healthy person. This method traditionally relied on photographs accompanied with a backstory related to the object presented which requires an imaginative effort from the participants that tends to affect the experiment since it is not a realistic scenario. The current work presents a solution that supports the experimental protocol in a virtual environment to help move the experiments from the traditional approach to a more realistic and ecologically valid environment utilizing 360° videos as the stimuli during the experiments. To reach that goal, a set of modules were developed and expanded on to enable the researchers to set up, control and supervise the experiments in real time. The system was developed in a close collaborative effort with the Mnemonic Tuning for Contamination (MTC) team and later during development was partially evaluated by the team alongside six psychology students. The outcome of said evaluation was positive and enabled, after a few tweaks, to move on to an evaluation involving 23 participants which also yielded good results. |
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