iACToR

International Association of CyberPsychology, Training, and Rehabilitation

Wunderkammer in VR-emotional Evocation Research (Applying Eye Tracking, Unconstrained Gaze & Movement Patterns)

Introducing the Wunderkammer as a VR-emotionally evocative tool for emotion research

(Applying Eye Tracking, Unconstrained Gaze and Movement Pattern)

The “Wunderkammer” is a immersive virtual world suite with different types of emotionally-charged content. Three Realms were applied to examine the effects of affective context on unconstrained gaze and movement. In the Affect Gallery, participants freely explored a virtual art museum filled with objects that varied in valence and arousal.

Participants approached and gazed more at positively valenced objects. This preference was amplified by more arousing objects and was strongest among individuals with resilient emotion regulation tendencies.

This bias of avoiding negative valence did not emerge in The Crowded Room (an environment in which participants encountered virtual humans expressing different emotions).

Instead, participants gazed more at negative than neutral emotional displays although they physically avoided angry (but not sad or neutral) agents.

When placed inside Room 101, an unpredictable environment filled with a series of disturbing events, frightened participants became relatively immobile in terms of both gaze and movement.

This freezing-type response was particularly strong among dispositionally resilient individuals. Together these results demonstrate distinct affective contexts elicit unique patterns in unconstrained gaze and movement.

They further illustrate the benefits of using virtual reality to study affect as it naturally emerges.

Views: 339

Comment

You need to be a member of iACToR to add comments!

Join iACToR

Comment by Randy Eady on June 3, 2019 at 5:09am

Ever more neuro-findings suggest vagal tone (VT) & regulation may be a salient, clearly observable mechanism through which love & attachment can be seen to reduce stress & promote well-being & resiliency in health. 

Bethany Kok hypothesized having a higher vagal tone might be part of an “upward spiral” part of a multi-directional feedback loop accessible from various points of entry.  To this end they've found people w/higher vagal tone exhibit overall better heart-health, lower levels of inflammation, stronger social bonds & tend to congruently regulate emotions. 

For example, genuine wholehearted "micro-moments" of social resonance between two individuals appeared to trigger an immediate parasympathetic “tend & befriend”  response "radiating out" to improve vagal tone for both parties involved. The positive visceral and psychological feedback of these warm-hearted exchanges led people to expand social networks in a way to spread positive emotions and prosocial behaviors.

© 2024   Created by Brenda K. Wiederhold.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service