Fear and Anxiety in Virtual Reality - Investigations of cue and context conditioning in virtual environment

Virtual realities provide an outstanding tool in anxiety research. A fear conditioning study investigates and illustrates the development of anxiety disorders in humans. Hannah Genheimer describes the scientific background of fear and anxiety and presents an empirical study in a highly controlled virtual environment. Psychophysiological as well as subjective data on the participants' fear and anxiety clearly show contextual fear conditioning. Cue conditioning in the light of one-trial learning is discussed. The results emphasize the promising application of virtual environments in psychotherapy.

List of contents

From classical conditioning to contextual fear conditioning.- Fear conditioning in virtual reality.- Explicit ratings and physiological data.-Contextual conditioning and anxiety disorders.

About the author

Hannah Genheimer studied Biology and wrote her interdisciplinary master thesis at the Department of Psychology I in Wuerzburg. Currently, she works on the investigation of fear and anxiety in her dissertation project implicating fear conditioning in virtual reality and vagus nerve stimulation.

Summary

Virtual realities provide an outstanding tool in anxiety research. A fear conditioning study investigates and illustrates the development of anxiety disorders in humans. Hannah Genheimer describes the scientific background of fear and anxiety and presents an empirical study in a highly controlled virtual environment. Psychophysiological as well as subjective data on the participants’ fear and anxiety clearly show contextual fear conditioning. Cue conditioning in the light of one-trial learning is discussed. The results emphasize the promising application of virtual environments in psychotherapy.

Product details

• Authors: Hannah Genheimer
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2014
• EAN: 9783658082024
• ISBN: 978-3-658-08202-4
• No. of pages: 79
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 210 mm x 5 mm
• Weight: 132 g
• Illustrations: X, 79 p. 8 illus.
• Series: Springer VS; BestMasters; BestMasters
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Applied psychology; Non-fiction book > Psychology, esoterics, spirituality, anthroposophy > Applied psychology; B, Biopsychologie, Physiologische Psychologie, Neuropsychologie, Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Clinical psychology, Behavioral Science and Psychology, Physiological and neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Biological Psychology