ABSTRACT. Objectives. – Thinking about the future and building a project for life after their time in care proves to be an arduous task for adolescents who have spent several years in a psychiatric day hospital. This process is complex due to a multitude of intertwining factors. How are they to form a project for the future? The mechanism at the day hospital where we intervened with the aim of helping the young people there with this task has evolved progressively. A discussion group doomed to fail for many years has been replaced by an Internet workgroup, which, with the help of human-machine interaction allowed a positive outcome. Patients and method. – We present the journey of a group of adolescents which made it possible to reconsider the arrangements proposed for accompanying them at the time of their release, while trying to elucidate the specificity of a mediation using a virtual support. The group is made un of teenagers between 14 and 19 years old who have diagnosis of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders and have been hospitalised in the psychiatric centre for an average duration of two years. We proposed to this group of teenagers a weekly session of group discussion mediated by computers. Results. – After a year of digital mediation with these adolescents, we have noticed a great improvement in their ability to socialize and better results in professional orientation research. Conclusions. – Using computers as a mediation in communication allows psychotic patients to feel less persecuted by the gaze of the other and gives them the opportunity to work more effectively with the objectives set in the end of the care in psychiatric day hospital.

ABSTRACT. Introduction. Management dysfunction in schizophrenia is a major clinical and social issue. Deficiencies in attention, planning, or inhibition, as well as impairments in performing complex tasks, can negatively affect patients' quality of life. When assessing executive dysfunctions, several neuropsychological methods are being used. In this regard, the implementation of standard assessment tools and virtual reality (VR) settings is growing substantially. The main advantage of VR is to enable ecological validity while providing objective assessments, which may also complement those of standard tools. Among these tools, the virtual cooking task (VCT) is gaining momentum as an experimental multitask paradigm capable of assessing different cognitive functions. However, research using VCT in Schizophrenia is still very scarce, being further evidence still necessary to support clinical assessments. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the sensitivity of a novel VCT to assess cognitive functions as well as to predict clinical symptoms and daily functioning of a group of schizophrenia patients.

Methods. The sample was composed of n = 81 participants (n = 39 schizophrenia and n = 42 control) in the age range of 21-64. The groups did not significantly differ regarding age. Executive functions in selective attention, attention shifting, inhibition of control, cognitive flexibility, and planning were measured as the primary study outcome by specific computerized standard tasks (CST) and a novel VCT. Secondary outcomes primarily focused on whether the VCT predicted dimensions of daily functioning and negative symptoms. The CST included, the DOT probe task, the STROOP test, the Go-No go task, the Trail Making Test (TMT; with two parts A & B), and the Tower of London (TOLD). The VCT recreated a kitchen wherein participants implemented four tasks with increasing complexity. The tasks consisted in cooking five ingredients (carrots, courgettes, eggs, meat, and potatoes) within a scheduled time each while avoiding overcooking them (“burning”) or allowing them to cool down (both addressed attention shifting). The third and fourth tasks respectively included a Go-no Go “dressing” task and a table-setting task (planning). Participants completed the CST and VCT. The clinical group also completed the negative scale of PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) and FAST (Function Assessment Short Test) to assess daily-life functioning in six different domains (autonomy, occupational functioning, cognitive, financial, interpersonal relationships, and leisure).

Results. MANCOVAs for the CST and VCT (with age as a covariate) showed that, in general, the control group performed better. Specifically, controls were significantly better in the DOT, STROOP, GO-NO GO, and TMT B tasks, but not better in the TMTA and TOLX. Moreover, they were significantly faster in the VCT. Interestingly, a planning task defined by the table setting discriminated better control group performance. Importantly, results showed that, within the clinical sample, better planning measured by the VCT predicted better interpersonal scores by the FAST and lower negative symptoms by the PANSS.

Discussion. Findings support the VCT as a relevant experimental paradigm, sensitive to differences in executive functioning between control and schizophrenia samples. Notably, some VCT metrics seem useful in predicting core clinical dimensions. Rather than a substitute, the VCT has great potential to be a complementary measure to standard executive functioning tools. Nevertheless, future research might focus on improving the standardization of this novel methodology.

ABSTRACT. Introduction It is estimated that 40-45% of adults worldwide have had or will have a sexual problem. Psychosexual treatments are considered effective and yet female untreated rates are high. It appears doubtful that the traditional ways of providing mental healthcare will be able to meet the existing demands. Avatar-based therapy might be a solution; therefore, the objective of this study is to design and test the efficacy, compared to a control group, of an avatar-based intervention for female orgasm disorder, adapted to be administered in Second Life. Method 217 women participated on a clinical evaluation to check if they matched the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for female orgasm disorder. Among them, 38 met the criteria and enrolled in the study. They were randomized between the intervention condition and the control group. This is an ongoing project, but there is pre-post available data for 14 participants: 8 women (age range 18-39; mean=27) took part in an avatar-based intervention group, and 6 women (age range 21-52; mean=32) were part of a control group based on minimum therapeutic contact. Intervention was based on the cognitive behavioral therapy approach (treatment with the most empirical evidence) and previous literature about FOD, and lasted 13 sessions, which were administered once a week. Treatment plans feature psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, virtual exposure, and engagement in personal values. Control group consisted in individual educative sessions. Analysis was by intention-to-treat and the means between groups were compared with an ANCOVA. Results Significant between-group differences were found in sexual satisfaction, sexual function, sexual anxiety, and sexual self-esteem, favoring intervention. For sexual satisfaction, assessed with the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction, the results showed a significant increase for the intervention group, going from low to high sexual satisfaction, and moving from one side to the other of the cut-off point; while the results from the control group remained stable. For sexual function, assessed with the Female Sexual Function Index, the results also showed a significant increase pre-post intervention, with the intervention group participants going from “presence of sexual disorder” to having a good sexual function, and the scores moving from one side to the other of the cut-off point; while the results from the control group remained stable. For sexual anxiety, assessed with the Sexual Anxiety scale of the Expanded Sexual Arousability Inventory, the results pre-intervention showed high levels of sexual anxiety, which significantly reduce after the treatment for intervention group, while the results from the control group remained stable. Finally, for sexual self-esteem, assessed with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the results showed that the participants of the intervention group significantly went from having a poor sexual self-esteem, to having a good one, while the results from the control group remained stable. Participants of the intervention group reported some benefits, which go beyond those of internet-based counselling not based in virtual reality, including a modality of treatment that was very convenient and flexible, a secure and comfortable environment, or not having to go to a clinic in order to avoid the embarrassment that situation may produce. Treatment also helped with reducing participants’ sexual anxiety before practicing sexual acts in real life. In summary, they declared to be very satisfied with both the results and the treatment itself. Conclusions This avatar-based intervention using Second Life seems to be effective to improve some of the variables which may be related with maintenance of female orgasm disorder.

ABSTRACT. Concerns around cybersecurity are increasing globally, and previous research has emphasized the human factors that contribute to cybersecurity risks. However, cultural differences have been understudied in this context. With individuals’ behaviors and perceptions shaped by both psychological factors and collective norms, this is an important area for further investigation. This study examined the role of cultural values (using Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Values), perceived vulnerability and security self-efficacy (linked to Protection Motivation Theory), alongside demographic variables as predictors of cybersecurity behaviors among individuals in the United Kingdom (n=201) and Saudi Arabia (n=211). Participants completed an online survey. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that demographic variables (gender, country and age) explained 8.7% of the variance in cybersecurity scores, which increased to 43.2% of variance explained with the inclusion of the main study variables. Results showed that cultural values linked to lower self-enhancement (and higher self-transcendence) as well as perceived vulnerability and security self-efficacy predicted cybersecurity behaviors among individuals across distinct cultural contexts. Females also engaged in higher cybersecurity behaviors overall. The findings are important in showing the relative importance of both cultural and psychological factors in relation to cybersecurity, which has implications for informing more relevant intervention and prevention strategies.

ABSTRACT. Literature on the phenomena of radicalization shows that communicative interaction plays a fundamental role in all radicalization processes connected with identity-shaping processes: recruitment, dissemination of ideology, conversion to the cause, organization, and planning of an attack. Therefore, we could say that all the communicative interactions convey a part of the subject’s identity. This part results from a strategic process that the individuals consciously or unconsciously produce in encountering the environment, the artefacts, and their interlocutors. Subjectivity is the noun of the identity part strategically produced by the subject during communicative interaction. Therefore, radicalized subjectivity is the definition of a subjectivity that shows characteristics proper of a radicalized and ideological culture. In other words, subjectivity is the phenomenology of identity in action. And this is true both in natural and digitally mediated ecosystems. It is the authors’ thoughts – partially matured by the studies developed in the Horizon Project CounteR https://counter-project.eu/ – that some different typologies of radicalized subjectivity can be differentiated as affected by three levels of culture respectively generated by and related to subject (micro dimension), subject’s social networks (meso dimension), society, extended networks, and institutions to which the subject pertains to (macro dimension). The subjects' agency in creating subjectivities decreases from the micro dimension to the macro. Therefore, the study of subjectivity can lead to relevant reflections on the ecosystem influences on the subjects' identity heritage, and actions. When critical, these elements provide 'fuel' for constructing problematic, radicalized, or pathological subjectivities. For instance, being excluded by the school or work social contexts means introjecting into identity the fact of being a 'lone actor', not inserted in society. The oral presentation will discuss the necessity to simultaneously study the processes of construction of radicalized subjectivity activities in the so-called virtual networks and real networks. Based on the above arguments, the authors intend to focus on how experiences related to these factors - made by subjects offline and online - lead to the construction through their interweaving of a complex matrix of 'Onlife Experiences', to borrow the term used by Floridi (2015). What we are interested in, in fact, is how through such experiences subjects use the identity repertoires that characterize their identity to complete the processes of constructing their subjectivity. From 'Onlife Experiences' then to the construction of 'Onlife subjectivities' in the processes of radicalization. The presentation of this pathway has a twofold purpose: 1) To show the appropriateness of an approach to the exploration of constructing Onlife Subjectivity that respects its complexity, using tools taken from social psychology, sociology, and communication sciences. 2) To present some of the consequences on the theoretical, methodological, and investigative techniques levels that the development of the concept of Onlife subjectivity may have on the definition of intelligence strategies. The relevance and the usefulness of a Digital Humint model allowing tracking of the traces left by subjects into the various environments – physical and digitally mediated – in which their Onlife Subjectivity takes place through experience taking place on the road to radicalization will be discussed. As this is a contribution resulting from different studies conducted in the context of the Horizon CounteR project, this abstract does not contain any information on the methodological aspects of data production and analysis (for which please refer to https://counter-project.eu/) that will be accounted during the oral presentation.

ABSTRACT. With the rise of the internet in the 1990's, the use of computers has become an indispensable and vital part of people’s daily communication (Christie & Dill, 2016). A large body of research indicate that people increasingly rely on computer-based communication under the relative anonymity of internet as they contact with others (Christie & Dill, 2016). At the midst of this novel medium and way of communication an increase in hostility and aggression within cyberspace and social media has been noticed by numerous researchers and been subject to academic investigation and research (Christie & Dill, 2016). It has been proposed that exposure to violent media is a prime contributor to increased cyber-aggression. Krahe&Möller (2010) noted that there is meta-analytic evidence between violent media consumption and tendency to engage in aggression. Exposure to mass media violence such as hate speech, violent video games and cyber bullying alter cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes and possibly lead to desensitization towards violence. Supporting this notion, the landmark study by Molitor and Hirsch (1994) and subsequent studies confirmed that viewing violent video images increased tolerance for violent behavior. Nevertheless, there is still substantial a gap in our understanding between longitudinal effects of media violence, cyber harassment and adolescents' perception toward violence. The focus concept of this research is justification of cyber-harassment among Turkish Adolescents. As this concept is a "multi-layer" phenomenon, it is aimed to provide deep-sight toward "justification of cyber-harassment" in terms of digital media literacy, engagement of cyber-harassment, alexthimia and attitude toward violence. First of all, social media usage habits are very important. Heavy users are potential risk groups for cyber harassment which is defined as any of violent behaviors at cyberspace such as hate speech, bullying, online gossiping. Engaging in cyber harassment is another risk for desensitization. People, especially adolescents who engage in cyber harassment both as a victim or as a perpetrator after a while perceive violence as a "normal" behavior, they desensitize toward cyber- violence. Not only result for real-life violence, desensitization to violence is an incidental process which may also result in exposure to media violence. The most important result of desensitization toward violence is justification of violence and after a while individuals perceive violence like a "legitimate right" (Barkun,2000). Moreover, according to Gamez-Guadix & Gini (2016), youth who reported high levels of justifications of aggressive behaviors, were more likely to engage in reactive aggressive behaviors toward peers. With regard to Justification of cyber-harassment, there are researches that shows there is a relationship between justification of aggression have positively associated with cyber- bullying perpetrators. Also, researchers found that attitudes toward justification of cyber-bullying were associated with being perpetrator of cyber-bullying. Based on literature reviews and findings from other researches hypothesizes of this research as following; H1: Justification of cyber-harassment is stronger among Turkish youths both victim and perpetrator of cyber-harassment. H2: Justification of cyber-harassment is stronger among Turkish youths with lack of digital media literacy skills. H3: The justification of cyber-harassment is stronger among Turkish youths with high alexitimia level. Present research conducted with the participation of 400 university students, it was determined that variables of cyber-victimization, cyber-bullying, digital media literacy and alexithymia (emotional deafness) were explanatory effects on justification of cyber violence. As a result of present research; cyber victimization, digital media literacy and alexithymia have explanatory effects on justification of cyber harassment whereas being a cyberbully has no explanatory effects on justification of cyber harassment. In this context, it has come to the point that the use of digital media literacy and conscious internet using are important in order to prevent justification of cyber harassment.

ABSTRACT. This presentation reviews the critical need for stress therapy for US firefighters, a teletherapy solution, an overview of how such online VR therapy works, and a proposed study of the effects of a treatment "in the wild" in actual fire stations. The potential is for increased teletherapy application usage and many lives saved.

Firefighters have a high prevalence of occupational stress, resulting in sleep disorders, suicide, hypertension, and insomnia. In four years, 513 firefighters committed suicide in the US, according to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance, which notes the actual count may be more than double that. A survey of over 7,000 firefighters showed 37% had sleep disorders, double the normal rate of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, twice the rate of vehicle accidents, and three times the rate of depression and anxiety. Much of this is unrecognized and under-appreciated: 83% of those with sleep disorders were undiagnosed and untreated.

Although treatments with VR/XR and other means by therapists have provided vital relief for firefighters, such one-on-one therapies are not scalable, and are not accessible to fire stations on a 24/7 basis.

One effective treatment for stress is the online use of VR meditation scenarios for reductions in depression and insomnia. An example of this is Healium’s sleep application Sleepium, an online immersive sleep meditation experience in VR (with Oculus Headsets) which also uses neurofeedback to enable the user to amplify specific brain waves associated with sleep. Brainwave data is monitored by sensors in a Brainlink EEG headband and tracked in the Oculus display, enabling the user to visualize and track the meditation/relaxation process. It has been implemented with thousands of military, healthcare, first responder and other users. Controlled studies demonstrate superiority over audio-only relaxation systems. Unlike one-on-one therapies, this process can be scalable to large communities, and can be delivered in situ on a 24/7 basis.

We propose to evaluate Healium’s system as an example of an online-delivered VR solution to firefighter stress and insomnia, by providing it to 20 firefighters on location for 60 days. Our expectation is that the severity of stress and insomnia will be significantly reduced, along with improvements in sleep architecture. This could save many lives, and lead to increased implementation and funding for VR-based teletherapy.

Methods Participants Twenty volunteer firefighters recruited from the L.A. County Fire Department will utilize Sleepium for 60 days.

Assessment Procedure and Clinical Measurement Instruments The firefighters’ level of stress related to sleep disorders will be assessed before and after the treatment by the Brunel Mood Scale, which has been found reliable in measuring Tension and Depression. Sleep difficulties will be assessed prior to treatment and after the treatment by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The results of our study will be reported during CYPSY26.

Equipment HEALIUM’s application Sleepium, with Oculus headsets and Brainlink EEG headbands.

Treatment 20 firefighters will be provided with Sleepium, instructed in its use, and will be enabled to use it every time they sleep for 60 days. The researchers will monitor progress, be available to answer questions, and check on any firefighter who has temporarily stopped usage. Support is critical for such “in the wild” treatments in fire stations full of noise, lights, activity, and sirens, as opposed to normal calm laboratory settings.

Funding Funding for the Online VR Therapy for Specific Enhancement of Wellness and Reduction in Insomnia Among Firefighters project is underway.

Discussant:

ABSTRACT. Background: PTSD may become a chronic illness, negatively affecting all facets of life. Thus, PTSD treatment is a crucial public health issue. Although effective interventions exist, many patients never receive them, and even these are not helpful for a significant proportion of patients. Objectives: this non-inferiority RCT aimed to compare a novel, internet-based modular CBT treatment that uses Virtual Reality (PIT) with Prolonged Exposure (PE), a gold standard intervention. Methodology: Clinical assessments included the DIAMOND and CAPS and self-report measures (BDI and PCL5) before and after treatment. Patients were randomized to PIT or PE and received 10 sessions. The PIT treatment contains five flexible modules (psychoeducation, in vivo exposure, imaginal exposure with VR, cognitive restructuring and response prevention). PIT takes place on a secure interactional online space. Patients received VR headsets, and VR is delivered by the therapist using an online platform. This platform was developed for the purpose of the study, and allows the therapist to have remote control over VR scenarios. Scenarios consisted of hospital and accident scenes, and where possible individualized scenarios were also constructed for the participant. Results: 20 patients were assessed, 5 were not suitable for the RCT. Six patients dropped out during the therapy. Ten patients finished all sessions. Results show significant decreases in PTSD and depression symptoms from before to after therapy, in both completers and dropouts (PTSD: F(1,4)=8.3, p<0.05; depression: F(1,4)=10.3,p<0.05). There were no significant group by time interactions (PTSD: F(1,4)=0.7, ns; depression F(1,4)=0.4, ns). Conclusions: Results indicate that PIT and PE are equally effective in treating chronic PTSD. The PIT protocol allows flexibility in the choice of treatment components. Moreover, internet based individualized VR is a novel treatment that should be further explored. Limitations include a small N, and a study carried out during COVID-19.

ABSTRACT. Virtual reality (VR) technology allows for the creation of highly controlled and immersive environments that can be used to study a wide range of psychological variables. The ability to manipulate visual, auditory, and haptic stimuli in a virtual environment allow researchers to study behavior, cognition, and emotions in ways that would be difficult or even impossible in the real world. Furthermore, VR technology allows for the precise measurement of physiological and behavioral responses in real time, which enables the examination of dynamic processes. Practically, VR offers a powerful tool for studying psychological variables in both time and space and has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of human behavior, cognition, and emotion, over time. Despite the many advantages of using VR to study psychological variables in time and space, there are still some limitations to consider when using VR in empirical research. One major limitation is that methodological protocols for studying state or space models or other useful mathematical or statistical methods have not been extensively used or developed in VR research. In fact, the use of state or space models in VR research is still in its infancy, and there is a need for more research to develop appropriate methods for collecting and analyzing data in VR environments. Moreover, notwithstanding VR is often represented as a space - with the virtual environment being a spatial representation of the real world - studies that use VR technology do not always consider the different geometry in the VR architecture. In fact, one important aspect to consider would be the concept of Minkowski distance, which is a measure of distance between two points in a space that can take into account the geometry of that space. In mathematical terms, Minkowski distance is a generalization of the Euclidean distance, which is commonly used to measure the distance between two points in a Euclidean space. It can be derived by using a norm, which defines the length of a vector, and it can be used in spaces with non-Euclidean geometry. In VR studies, Minkowski distance may be useful for measuring the distance between two points in the virtual environment, taking into account the non-Euclidean geometry of the virtual space. For example, when studying navigation in VR, it may be important to consider Minkowski distance to accurately measure the distance an individual has traveled in the virtual environment. It's a useful tool for analyzing an individual's behavior in the virtual environment, especially when the virtual environment is not Euclidean, such as a city with buildings, obstructing a Euclidean path. Thus, while VR technology is represented as a space, it is important to consider the different geometry in the VR architecture, specifically the concept of Minkowski distance and its derivation. This can provide a more accurate measure of distance and behavior in virtual environments and can help to better understand the dynamics of human behavior in VR. Overall, while VR technology offers a powerful tool for studying psychological variables in time and space, there is still much work to be done in terms of developing appropriate methodological protocols and understanding the limitations and potential confounds of VR research. In my talk, I will provide practical examples and the reasons for which we need to consider new methods and new statistical tools related to time and space when we conduct VR research. Data and codes will be provided in open access to allow practical use to the VR research community.

ABSTRACT. Introduction

The psychological research on video games has thrived in the last decades. Some aspects of these complex media have been neglected by researchers in favor of others. For example, because of the huge interest towards the possible effects of violent contents on behavior, action video games have been studied consistently more than other genres. The same happened with massive multiplayer games because of the rise of the Metaverse and eSports. However, the gaming scenario is currently seeing a renewed interest towards single-player games requiring high problem solving abilities, e.g. context awareness and analysis, investigation and deduction, logical puzzles and decryption (“investigative games” for short from now on). This rise in interest towards complex problem solving in ludic activities appears connected to similar contents across other media, such as investigative board games and the re-flourishing of gamebooks. It is interesting to explore both the motivational factors involved in players’ selection of these products, and the perceived benefits in terms of cognitive empowerment and influence on everyday activities (e.g., whether they affect players' perceived abilities in complex work or study tasks). For example, it is possible that one is driven to play such games due to the compelling challenge which allows the player to feel competent (an important motivation according to Self-Determination Theory); or, it is possible one would perceive investigative games as an occasion to exercise abilities useful to tackle everyday life challenges (a concept known as “transferability”of skills).

Goals

The research tackles two main open research questions: - What personality and motivational factors are involved in the preference towards investigative games and video games? - What perceived benefits players find in investigative games and video-games, and are they transferred in everyday work or study tasks?

Methods

We are conducting a cross-sectional research involving around 200 video game players (age 18-45 years old). Participants are invited to fill out questionnaires including:

- Background information, i.e. demographic, education, employment status - Ad hoc measures on preference towards investigative video games, complex problem solving in video games, and similar contents across other media; - The Big Five for personality factors; - A measure of motivation based on previous research and Self Determination Theory in video games; - Rosenberg scale for self-esteem and an ad hoc measure for self-efficacy in complex problem solving; - A survey based on the OECD-PIAAC model (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies) to investigate everyday usage of cognitive and metacognitive aspects in adults (such as literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments).

Expected Results

We expect to obtain relevant information on motivational and personality factors related to the interest (or preference) towards the requirement of high problem solving abilities in video games: this could be useful to inform video game developers and marketers to design innovative products based on players’ profiles and needs. Moreover, we expect to obtain relevant information on the perceived benefits of consistently playing video games with high problem solving requests in everyday life, possibly in terms of transferability of complex cognitive abilities in work and study activities. This could provide interesting indications to educators who plan to use games, video games, or gamified interactive technologies in general to promote learning or social change, in that it will share light on the usage of media to train high-level cognitive processing.

ABSTRACT. Introduction

Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to individual’s ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others (Kanske et al 2015) and understand that people can have different beliefs, intentions, or perspectives. According to Wellman (2018), ToM develops gradually. It is proven that children firstly understand that people can express different desires and beliefs about the same situation, before correctly judging false beliefs (Wellman and Liu, 2004). In the same way, first-order beliefs tasks are achieved by children earlier than second-order beliefs. As VR allows the creation of naturalistic environments, enhancing participant’s motivation (Priore Castelnuovo and Liccione, 2002) and commitment, we developed a ToM serious game (VR-ToM) to assess gradual ToM development in typically developing children, aged 5 to 10 years old. Additionally, the aim of this study is to compare VR-ToM with traditional ToM measures.

Method

77 children divided into three age groups (5-6 years, 7-8 years, and 9-10 years) were included in this study. Two social scenarios, in a form of a serious game, were created using Unity 3D software. Both scenarios represented real-life environments, familiar to participants (school yard and summer camp) and evaluated eight mental states (from diverse desires to emotional faux pas). The scenarios were presented to the participants on a Lenovo E580 laptop screen. The same virtual characters were used in both scenarios. Each child had its own avatar (main character’s -male or female- best friend) and could navigate to virtual environment by using the computer’s mouse. Participants received only one out of two social scenarios and two subtests of Nepsy-II (Affect Recognition and ToM).

Results and discussion

ANOVA analysis revealed an age effect for VR-ToM (F (2, 74) =15, 51; p =<.001), confirming that ToM develops with an increasing complexity. More precisely, post hoc analysis showed that both 7-8-year-old group and 9–10-year-old group, perform significantly better than the 5–6-year-old group (7-8 y-o (p =.001) and 9-10 y-o (p <.001). Youngest children (5–6-year-old) performed significantly lower on four mental states (explicit false belief, real apparent emotion, faux pas, and emotional faux pas). Concerning VR-ToM comparison with normative date, VR-ToM scores were positively correlated with Nepsy-II ToM scores (Total Score: r (75) = .61, p < .001; Verbal Score: r (75) = .62, p < .001) for all three groups. These findings highlight the potential of VR-ToM serious game for the assessment of social skills as well as the interest of its use to train ToM in pediatric populations.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this communication is to present the state of the art of the research and development of a video game for the rehabilitation of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), whose prototype version dates to 2018. The current version, a project funded by the Brazilian government through the Centelha Programme (FINEP/FACEPE), is the result of two years of research and coding. We worked with neuropsychologists, in order to develop a graphic intention and a colour palette that are supported by current research on ADD and ADHD. The project consists of a breakout video game, hosted on an online platform that allows the professional to elaborate the remediation pathway of his patient according to his difficulties and results. During the first session, the patient must pass a test on an interface that evaluates his deficit and will have to do a retest at the end of the remediation process. The test that is applied is programmed specifically for the game, following the criteria of an Attention Network Test. The platform has a backend that not only records all the data from the game, but also calculates it, producing statistics and graphs. These results, and additional data got from an eye-tracking technology that identify patient movement eyes during the game, are interpreted by a scalable Machine Learning AI. Eye-tracking has emerged as a promising tool for identifying attentional difficulties, given its ability to measure visual attention in real-time. Therefore, eye-tracking technology will be incorporated into the process to screen for disorders, that can be used to support a diagnostic assessment. This will provide the AI with more accurate and reliable data on the patient's attentional difficulties or progress. The goal is that the AI guides the professional so that he can, by understanding the progress made, propose a remediation path adapted to the difficulties of each patient. To be successful, this project must be developed on several technical fronts: the design and programming of the game and the platform; the addition of the eye-tracking device to the operation of the platform; and Machine Learning coding that will process the generated data from the game interaction to tune the challenges, improving the user experience, as well as supporting the identification of early signals when analyzing the set of patterns already related to ADD and ADHD symptoms. It should be noted that the addition of the eye-tracking device requires first the creation of a prototype that can be produced at low cost and the programming of its software. From a scientific point of view, research must be carried out on two levels: 1. Updating literature reviews on the themes concerned: AAD, ADHD, and advances in its treatment/remediation; online cognitive remediation tools; research on eye-tracking and attention; ANTI-type tests. 2. A validation protocol applied on a large scale, for one year, with a check 6 months later to verify the stability and consistency of the transfer of learning. This protocol must include a quantitative aspect, which is essential for the credibility of its results, but also a qualitative aspect, with a smaller cohort, which will be decisive for verifying the real impact of the proposed remediation. We are currently at the halfway point of this project. Our paper will present the prototype, the current game, and its platform, show how the research to add eye-tracking to the patient's game pathway is being carried out - with the support of the SCALab (Université de Lille/CNRS) and the IrDIVE project of Lille -, report on our literature review on the topics mentioned and explain the next steps in the implementation of the project.

ABSTRACT. Time is at the core of the concept of episodic memory since it allows us to maintain over timespans the possibility of retrieving in the present information perceived in the past. The episodic memories of personal experiences situated in their original spatiotemporal context and phenomenal details ground our sense of identity, self-awareness and subjective temporal continuity. Not only is time travel the ability to project oneself backward to relive personal past experiences mentally but also forward in time to anticipate and pre-live possible future experiences. Mental time travel disorders significantly limit autonomy in everyday life activities. Thus, a better understanding via ecological assessments using virtual reality is particularly timely for psychological research, including neuropsychology. This symposium will present how immersive virtual reality allows innovative testing of specific types of memory concerned with objective and subjective time dimensions, namely episodic memory and episodic autobiographical memory, as well as prospective memory and episodic future thinking. For the first time, we will present four studies approved by an ethics committee and submitted for international publication. Sylvain Penaud will show how bodily self-consciousness (BSC) influences episodic memory encoding and remembering via mental time travel. He will present the effect of visuomotor feedback to induce body illusion over a personalized avatar seen from a first-person perspective. BSC (self-identification, self-location, agency) and sense of presence were investigated using explicit and implicit tasks after each navigation, as well as participants' event memory for factual and contextual information (What, Where, When and binding), sense of remembering, and memory phenomenology using a free recall test and a recognition test both immediately and after a ten-day delay. Diane Lenormand will examine what predicts long-lasting episodic autobiographical memory using an immersive walk in a virtual city where participants either witnessed or interacted with 30 events with various emotional valences (positive, neutral, or negative) and carried physiological sensors. All participants have taken a surprise memory test after a one-month delay. A sub-group of participants has taken additionally two other memory tests, one after encoding and one a week after encoding, to assess the role of memory re-activation during the retention delay. Benjamin Lesur will demonstrate, using a new virtual reality tool, the interaction between recent episodic memory and induction of mental time travel into either the past or the future immersing participants in virtual streets with advertising billboards presenting various events that have occurred (in the past, 2020) or could potentially happen (in the future, 2024). He tested that memories of new events are reduced when they compete with episodic autobiographical memories or episodic future thinking. Pascale Piolino will investigate how the direction of spontaneous mental time travel during mind wandering may affect prospective memory tested in a virtual ecological setting. She will present the differential impact of past and future spontaneous mental travel during a retention phase raising high or low mind wandering frequency on the performance of remembering to execute planned actions during an immersive virtual walk in a town at specific places and times. The symposium will also emphasize the interest of these findings to innovate new methods for rehabilitating memory and mental time travel in real-life.

The role of bodily self-consciousness in episodic memory of naturalistic events: An immersive virtual reality study. Sylvain Penaud; Exploration of episodic autobiographical memory formation using virtual reality: what becomes of experienced events with different emotions and implications of the self in memory? Diane Lenormand; Virtual reality to test the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis of the mental time travel into the future. Benjamin Lesur; The time travel of prospective memory intentions when the mind wanders: new insight from a virtual walk. Pascale Piolino.

ABSTRACT. It is widely established that information related to the self holds a special significance in our minds. For example, it has been shown that self-related information is remembered best. However, these studies mainly focused on the self as an object of knowledge and overlooked its subjective dimension. Consequently, recent research has started to target minimal and embodied forms of the self (i.e., bodily self-consciousness - BSC). BSC refers to the multisensory integration processes of bodily signals that contribute to building the subjective feeling of being a self in a body. The growing accessibility of virtual reality technology (VR) has made it possible the online multisensory bodily signals to induce the illusion of being embodied into a virtual avatar seen from the first-person perspective and to study its influence on episodic memory (EM) encoding. For example, it has been shown that integrating the participant’s body while encoding enhances performance during a subsequent recognition test. More recently, it has been demonstrated that self-identification, as provided by synchronous visuotactile stimulation over one’s body or a virtual mannequin, increases memory performance and precision and promotes memory phenomenology. However, these studies present limitations. First, these studies focus primarily on self-identification and omit other dimensions of BSC. Second, these studies used non-ecological material or procedure, such as words, objects, or intentional encoding, and do not reflect how EM operates in everyday life, hindering its multidimensional and associative nature. Therefore, we sought to test the role of BSC on EM close to its expression in daily life, examining incidental memory of new events experienced in a naturalistic controlled environment. Using immersive VR, we immersed 34 healthy young adults (22.11yo ± 4.77) in three parts of a naturalistic virtual city enriched with everyday life events. We manipulated visuomotor feedback to induce body illusion over a personalized avatar seen from 1PP. Depending on experimental conditions, the avatar’s body was either synchronized, asynchronized (650ms visuomotor delay), or occluded. BSC (self-identification, self-location, agency) and sense of presence were investigated using explicit and implicit tasks after each navigation. Then, we used a virtual memory test to assess participants' event memory for factual and contextual information (What, Where, When and binding), sense of remembering, and memory phenomenology using a free recall test and a recognition test both immediately and after a ten-day delay. Our results show that participants in the synchronous condition scored higher in all BSC dimensions and had a stronger sense of presence in the virtual environment. Furthermore, participants in the synchronous condition recalled more events and specific details and bindings, compared to the asynchronized condition and a better sense of remembering compared to the asynchronous and no-body conditions. We found that participants in the synchronous condition scored higher in all BSC dimensions and had a stronger sense of presence in the virtual environment compared to the asynchronous condition. Regarding episodic memory, we found that participants in the synchronous condition recalled more events and specific details and showed better associative memory independent of delay than the asynchronized condition. We also found a higher sense of remembering in this condition compared to the asynchronous and no-body conditions after one week's delay. Finally, a partial correlation analysis revealed a positive association between BSC, sense of presence, and memory phenomenology. Overall, these results support the role of BSC for EM encoding and unravel the link between the sense of self, sense of presence, and sense of remembering to promote EM in ecological settings. Embodiment in virtual reality could help to stimulate the brain network involved in EM.

ABSTRACT. Episodic autobiographical memory is a long-term memory system that allows the encoding, storing and retrieval of personally experienced events with their internal and external context and grounds our sense of self. However, most laboratory studies of episodic memory generally lack ecological validity when creating new memories, and validity control when assessing newly formed real-life memories. Furthermore, not much is yet known about the simultaneous roles of the different factors of influence during encoding, and how these factors can influence what becomes of memories. Thus, can we predict episodic autobiographical memory?

In the present study, 60 participants, aged 18 to 40, were invited to experience an immersive walk in a virtual city where they either witnessed, or interacted with, 30 events with various emotional valences (positive, neutral, or negative). Physiological measures, including the electrodermal activity, respiration rate and heart rate, were recorded during the incidental encoding in the virtual city in order to access implicit responses to the experienced events. The participants took a surprise memory test after a one-month delay. For a sub-group of 30 participants, two memory tests were added, one immediately after encoding and one a week after encoding, to assess the role of memory re-activation during the retention delay. All participants had also to characterize explicitly each event memory using different subjective scales (emotion, self-relevance, memorability, etc.).

The main results at the one-month delay reveal the effects of the different factors (valence, self, group) and their interactions on the number of memories and their richness. Depending on the number of memory rehearsals during the retention delay and using the implicit (physiological responses) and explicit (self-assessments) measures, predictive models of long-lasting episodic autobiographical memory were built. These first results highlight the role of the self, the emotions, and some mental processes, such as metacognition, in predicting the outcome of events in long-term memory. Despite weak effects of both the heart and respiration rate, the electrodermal activity appears to get a stronger and faster reaction for negative events, and for events with an interaction, showing the link between implicit measures and the characteristics of the events.

Further exploration of the evolution of the consolidation status using EEG should shed lighter on the different processes at play. To conclude, this study explores an innovative approach examining the formation of episodic autobiographical memory in a naturalistic and controlled setting using virtual reality, which lays the groundwork for new rehabilitation methods for memory.

ABSTRACT. According to the "constructive episodic simulation" hypothesis, mental constructs concerning the past (EAM, Episodic Autobiographical Memory) and the future (EFT, Episodic Future Thinking) would rely on similarly constructed elements and a shared brain network. An essential function of memory would be to make information available in a flexible way for the mental simulation and imagination of forthcoming events. Within this theoretical framework, which admits the constructive nature of memory, the forgetting of certain non-targeted information is induced retrieving of more relevant related information. One study showed (Storm & Jobe, 2012) that this retrieval-induced forgetting effect (RIF) was observed when memories of new events competed with EAMs. However, RIF was not observed when they were put in competition with EFTs. Nevertheless, another study has re-evaluated and challenged this work (Ditta and Storm 2016), showing that RIF can be induced by EFTs. The authors question these divergent outcomes and attribute them to methodological differences between the two studies. According to recent literature (Addis et al., 2018), both memory and imagination would be manifestations of the same constructive simulation process. Thus, if this hypothesis is consistent, RIF should be observed during the construction of both EAMs and EFTs. In line with this position, we further investigated the FRI effect using a more ecological experiment in virtual reality. We have developed an immersive virtual reality tool to compare EFT and EAM, by initiating mental projections into the past or the future. To ensure the strong episodicity of EAMs and EFTs, we primed the participants for their episodic simulations with a virtual immersion in a past or future temporality. We manipulated these environments in terms of temporal distance. In both conditions, advertising billboards presented various events that have occurred (in the past) or could potentially occur (in the future). Apart from this, the environments had the same structure. The buildings were almost similar, and the difference in temporality was rather in the details. For the past condition, the chosen period was 2020. For the future condition, the chosen period was 2024. After this priming, the participants discovered objects in a virtual museum. These objects were attached, in each room, to categories (themes like gardening, entertainment, furniture, etc.). The participants had to produce past or future episodic simulations on these very themes. We studied whether past and future episodic simulations lead to forgetting some of the objects linked by the theme. Our results reported a significant retrieval-induced forgetting effect in both “past” and “future” conditions. As expected, we did not observe a difference between past and future conditions, nor an interaction effect between temporality and the forgetting effect. These results support our hypothesis and have also shown that virtual reality is a relevant method to study RIF and induce mental time travel both into the past and the future.

ABSTRACT. Mind wandering (MW) occurs when our attention spontaneously shifts from the on-going task to our inner thoughts as a spontaneous mental time travel. This cognitive state has recently received great scientific interest as it occupies between 30 % and 50 % of our waking mental activity. MW can be past-oriented when it concerns re-encoding old information and autobiographical memories but is more frequently future-oriented. Prospective memory is future-oriented and refers to remembering to execute planned actions in the future after a variable interval occupied by an on-going activity. It involves a retrospective component (what actions to do) and a prospective one (where or when to do the actions). The objective of this study was to investigate the causal link between MW and prospective memory in a real-life context. More specifically, we tested the differentiated impact of past or future thinking in MW during the retention interval on prospective memory performances in a virtual reality setting to be closer to real-life situations. Therefore, we asked sixty participants to learn a list of actions to perform (i.e., intentions) and recalled them during an immersive virtual walk in a large city inspired by a Parisian look at specific places and times. During the retention interval after the encoding of planned intentions, participants were randomly assigned to a high or a low cognitive load (CL) condition to manipulate MW frequency. The prospective memory task consisted of a twenty-minute navigation in the virtual city where participants had to carry out the planned intentions during their walk and interactions with avatars while listening to a podcast and receiving virtual SMS messages to resemble the complexity of on-going activities in real-life. The main findings indicated that a high MW frequency was linked with better global prospective memory performances during the virtual walk. However, spontaneous past-oriented MW predicted better recall of the content of intentions, while spontaneous future-oriented MW predicted their realization at the correct places. For the first time, we highlighted a different impact of MW temporal orientation depending on the prospective memory component (retrospective or prospective). These findings highlighted a different impact of spontaneous mental temporal orientation depending on the prospective memory component. Thus, we discussed that past‐oriented MW is crucial for (re)consolidating programmed intentions while future-oriented one is for planning and executing future actions. This new virtual reality application will allow the development of an innovative method for rehabilitating memory and prospection in real-life.

ABSTRACT. In the last decades, a growing body of evidence has suggested the role of sensorimotor information in successful spatial memory encoding and retrieval. Nonetheless, the role of body-related cues in the formation of spatial maps in humans is still under debate, for both theoretical and methodological reasons, and much research remains to be carried out in this field. The present study aims at investigating how individuals encode the spatial location of stimuli representing body parts and whether the perspective from which the body part is displayed impacts spatial memory. To this purpose, we exploited the capabilities of immersive virtual reality, which allowed us to design two different memory tasks, one targeting egocentric spatial memory and the other one targeting allocentric spatial memory. Thirty healthy adults participated in the study. The virtual environment was designed as a museum comprising four different buildings. The starting point was the middle point so that each building was located at one of the four cardinal points with reference to the user’s head. Each museum building was designed as a squared room, with two paintings hung up on each of the walls (8 paintings in total for each building). Overall, the stimuli were 32, all representing pictures of right hands in different positions. All the positions displayed were meaningless gestures (symbolic and iconic gestures were purposedly excluded to avoid possible semantic associations that could help memorization). Half of the stimuli depicted the hand in the first-person perspective (i.e., the position was compatible with the participant’s hand), and half of the stimuli depicted the hand in the third-person perspective (i.e. the position of the hand was not compatible with that of the participant, but the hand could be attributed to someone else in front of her). During the experiment, participants wore a head-mounted display and briefly familiarize themselves with the environment. After this first phase, the encoding condition began, whereby the participants were instructed to enter one of the buildings at a time and to freely explore the pictures included, with the aim to recall the picture positions for a later memory test. The free exploration lasted 4 minutes in total, 1 minute for each building. Afterward, the guided exploration started. In this phase, the pictures were randomly presented one at a time and the task for the participant was to find the correct picture location within the different buildings. Once the location was found, the next stimulus was presented. Both free and guided explorations served as encoding conditions. Immediately after that, the memory recall task was administered. It was split into two different tasks. Indeed, for each of the presented stimuli, an allocentric memory task and an egocentric memory task were carried out. In the allocentric task, the participants were asked to indicate in which of the 4 buildings the picture was located. In the egocentric task, they were asked to indicate on which of the 4 walls within the room the picture was hung up. We predict better spatial memory performance for stimuli depicted from the first-person point of view, at least during the egocentric memory task, suggesting that possibly a mechanism of simulation is responsible for body-related stimuli encoding. The results of the present study could inform how to design optimal experiences in the Metaverse and in immersive virtual reality, especially for educational purposes.

ABSTRACT. According to the "constructive episodic simulation" hypothesis, mental constructs concerning the past (EM, Episodic Memory) and the future (EFT, Episodic Future Thinking) would be based on similarly constructed elements and would rely on common brain networks. An important function of memory would be to make information available in a flexible way for the simulation of future events. Within this theoretical framework, we observe that forgetting certain non-targeted information is induced by the retrieval of more relevant information of the same category. One study has shown (Storm & Jobe, 2012) that this retrieval-induced forgetting effect (RIF) was observed when memories of events were put in competition with episodic memories, but RIF was not observed when they were put in competition with EFTs. However, this work has been reevaluated and challenged in another study (Ditta and Storm 2016), showing that RIF can be induced by EFTs. The authors question these divergent outcomes and attribute them to methodological differences between the two studies. According to recent literature, (Addis et al., 2018) memory would no longer be considered the basis of imagination, but instead, both memory and imagination would be manifestations of the same constructive simulation process. If this hypothesis is consistent, RIF should be observed during the construction of EFTs. In line with this position, we wish to further investigate this research using a more ecological paradigm in virtual reality through three experiments. We have developed an immersive virtual reality tool that allows us to compare EFT and EM, by initiating mental projections into the past or the future. In the first study, we aim to reduce the persistent ambiguity regarding forgetting induced by EFT. Immersion at different temporal periods will prime participants' episodic simulations to ensure the high episodicity of MEs and EFTs. After priming, the participants discover rooms filled with objects related to themes that they have to memorize. Then the participants will have to produce EFTs and EMs related to the temporal induction and the themes. If our hypotheses are confirmed, EFTs will lead to forgetting some of the objects linked by theme. Furthermore, according to the TEDIFT model (La Corte & Piolino, 2016), the proportion of personal semantic information increases with temporal distance. Personal semantic representations become more prominent as self-projection moves further into the future or the past. We assume that the stronger semanticization of mental simulations in more distant temporalities will lead to a lower RIF. In a second experiment, we want to confirm that there is a difference in episodicity between past and future mental simulations after immersion in different temporalities. In the first experiment, this factor was studied in an inter-participants design, and the episodic simulations could be moderated by the nature of the proposed themes. The second experiment will enable an intra-participant comparison, independent of the forgetting effect. We hypothesize that the episodicity score would be lower in the more distant conditions compared to the closer conditions, regardless of the past or future nature of the immersion. Finally, the third study aims to demonstrate the priming effect of virtual immersion in past or future temporalities on the episodicity of autobiographical simulations. To ensure that the comparison is valid between a primed and unprimed condition, a "neutral" condition will be presented to participants. The episodicity of autobiographical simulations will be compared within participants, either following immersion in a specific temporality or in a neutral environment. We hypothesize that the episodicity in each temporality condition will be stronger than in the neutral condition.

ABSTRACT. Neuropsychological testing aims to evaluate cognitive abilities on a behavioral task. Most neuropsychological tests are conducted using paper-and-pencil modality or computerized protocols. Recent concerns about the effectiveness of these procedures have focused on their ecological validity, i.e., the relationship between test results seen in a laboratory setting and actual daily cognitive functioning. Researchers have thus been working to create even-more-innovative techniques. The emergence of virtual reality presents new clinical and experimental opportunities in psychology since it is focused on exposing people to simulated but realistic stimuli and environments while simultaneously maintaining a controlled laboratory environment and gathering cutting-edge measures of cognitive functioning. An additional opportunity for neuropsychological assessment can be provided by a recent VR technology: 360° immersive images and videos. Using 360° cameras, it is possible to capture a circular fisheye view of the surroundings, which can then be viewed with a head-mounted display or simply by dragging the viewpoint with a mouse or a finger. Although recent studies have provided encouraging results for memory and executive function testing, their use in neuropsychological assessment is not yet so widespread. One issue might be the challenge of creating tools or modifying 360-degree videos in accordance with clinical requirements. This study aims to present cutting-edge software to develop ecologically valid and controlled environments, with standardized multimodal stimulation, precisely calibrated feedback about the performance, and automatic registration of outcomes. This software gives everyone the chance to use completely customizable virtual environments for whatever purpose they choose. The effectiveness of the created scenarios can be increased by using photographs of things and people the patient interacts with daily. Patients can thus experience photorealistic environments in a first-person perspective with immersive 360° scenarios: this quality can increase the procedure's accuracy and is crucial for the evaluation of a variety of memory-related factors. Additionally, the photorealistic style that distinguishes 360° technologies can increase their ecological value: in fact, the level of immersion and realism has an impact on memory coding procedures. Although 360° videos, compared to VR, seem to be non-interactive, by placing a link or hotspot on a door, it is possible to change the environment and give the impression that one is moving between rooms, even though they are not designed to allow for proper interaction. In this way, 360-degree videos can give viewers a stronger sense of presence by giving them the impression that navigating and touching objects is possible. Furthermore, since these technologies don't require any manual control, a larger target audience, including those with motor impairments, can be reached. Even more, it is possible to explore the surroundings or select items by focusing on the hotspots with the look. Two memory tests will be presented: an object recognition task and a spatial memory task. The first aims to evaluate visual memory by simulating an actual situation that might occur in daily life. Users must encode and then recall some target objects that have been moved while they are immersed in a virtual living room. In the second, patients have to navigate in apartment rooms and have to recognize the map of the house between four maps. Implementing 360° immersive photos and videos does not require the knowledge and understanding of advanced technical skills, and the equipment needed to record and visualize 360° materials is also more affordable than a standard VR setup. By evaluating behaviors in particular tasks in real-world situations, this type of software could make it possible to develop ecological testing or enhance existing ones with a higher rate of ecological validity.

ABSTRACT. Introduction: Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) could be a useful human augmentation technology for people with or without handicaps. The users’ performance can be enhanced through artificial EMS support, and the enhanced performance is called a preemptive gain. However, a preemptive gain can also disturb a user’s sense of agency (SOA); therefore, a balance between preemptive gain and SOA is needed for successful EMS support. A previous study suggested a method for achieving this balance; however, the effects of different users and body locations have not yet been investigated.

Method: The current study involved five right-handed participants (age: 29.0 ± 4.0 years). We used a full-body motion tracking suit that can provide multiple EMS points in the whole body (Teslasuit, VR Electronics Ltd., UK). Because we only had a single suit, we limited the size of the participants. Only participants with heights of 170–180 cm and weights of 60–75 kg were recruited for this study. First, we created individualized EMS levels. If the participant noticed the existence of an EMS, we set it to the minimum level. If a participant reported pain with the current EMS, we set it to the maximum level. The individualized intensity level for each participant was determined when the muscle started to contract with the current EMS level between the minimum and maximum levels. Second, the baseline reaction time was measured without EMS. The preemptive gain was defined as the difference between each EMS condition and the baseline value. The reaction times of individuals were measured at different body locations (left-arm, right-arm, left-leg, and right-leg). The baseline SOA level for each condition was also measured using a 7-point-likert scale. In the main task, the participants moved their body parts when the visual target appeared. The EMS was presented according to planned offset levels: range 0–300 ms; interval 50 ms; and four body locations, including the left-arm, right-arm, left-leg, and right-leg. Because we had four trials for each condition, 112 trials were conducted for each participant, and the SOA levels in each trial were measured. We used linear regression analysis for each body location and calculated the balance point between preemptive gain and SOA, as used in a previous study.

Results: We found balance points for all participants and their body parts. The participants reported a maximum rating of agency in the planned offset range, and there was a balanced preemptive gain in all participants and locations. We also observed user and location differences. There were different user gains from 33.25 to 92.25 ms, and there were different location gains; left-arm: 66.60; right-arm: 41.60; left-leg: 43.60; right-leg: 53.40 ms.

Discussion: In this study, we successfully found the balanced points between preemptive gain and SOA, and also found user and location differences. We believe that the user differences may be related to an individual’s tolerance to EMS. If somebody is more tolerant to EMS, they may have larger gains in the balance between preemptive gain and SOA; otherwise, they may have limited benefits. Different responses were observed in different body parts. Human augmentation should be expanded to full-body parts because each user has different inquiries. In this study, different muscles showed different balance points, which was attributed to the size of the muscle or dominant hand; however, a rigorous investigation should be conducted. We believe that our study of the balance between preemptive gain and SOA can contribute to full-body EMS development. With appropriate human augmentation, human performance or rehabilitation in full-body interactions can be improved.

Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the NRF and IITP grants funded by the Korean government (2021-0-00590 and 2021R1A2C2013479).

ABSTRACT. Introduction: In addition to verbal expressions, humans can recognize others’ emotional states through nonverbal expressions, including body motions. Prior studies have suggested visualization methods for body sensation and motion maps (BSM and BMM) for multiple emotions (i.e., happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, or surprise) and psychiatric symptoms (i.e., anxiety or depression). Theories suggest that emotional BSM is related to physiological responses and emotional body motions, and emotional BMM is related to voluntary and involuntary body motions. However, there was no evidence of the differences or similarities between emotional BSM and BMM, and it was not invested in participants’ psychiatric symptoms. In this study, we proposed a method for determining the similarity between BSM and BMM and compared the participants’ levels of general psychiatric symptoms.

Method: We recruited 29 participants (mean age 24 ± 2.5 years). Each participant’s subjective sensation toward the activation and deactivation of the body part was obtained using a computer-based self-report method (BSM). Participants were asked to color the body parts they felt ‘activated’ or ‘deactivated’ under the corresponding emotions of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, disgust, fear, and neutral, using a mouse click. The number of clicks corresponding to the feelings of activation and deactivation was recorded for each body part. Similarly, participants performed a total of 140 trials of free body movement for seven emotions for 5 s, which were measured using a full-body motion capture system (Motive 2.0.1, Natural Point, Oregon, USA). The movement value of each body part (19 parts) was then averaged over 20 trials. The participant’s body part movement being activated and deactivated under each emotion was calculated by subtracting the average values of each body part in the seven emotion conditions (BMM). The similarity between the BSM and BMM was calculated as the ratio of having the same activation (+) / deactivation (-) / non-activation (0) in each body part for each emotion. Participants’ mental status was measured using the total score of the psychiatric symptom checklist-90-revised (SCL-90-R).

Results: The similarity between BSM and BMM showed an average of 52.89% among emotions (happy 56.99%; sad 59.53%; surprised 48.28%; angry 51.00%; disgust 49.55%; fearful 55.17%; neutral 49.73%). There were shared emotional features between BSM and BMM of enhanced upper body and limb sensation in happy, decreased limb sensation in sad, increased sensation in upper limb in angry, and decreased sensation in fearful emotions. There was a significant negative correlation between the total SCL-90-R score and similarity in the happy emotion (r (27) = –0.448, p < .05), and we also will present novel visualizations for BSM and BMM.

Discussion: First, we found that the emotional sensation features of body activation or deactivation reflect one’s real body motion. We speculate that the shared emotional features in a body part would indicate learned cultural-emotional elements through socialization, which are related to the skeletomuscular system. Second, we found that the similarity between emotional BSM and BMM might be related to psychiatric symptom levels. Although the results of the current pilot study only provide a brief measure of psychiatric symptom levels, we found a significant correlation in some features. We believe that our method of comparing BSM and BMM can contribute to future studies on emotional and psychiatric disorders, including depression, autism, and schizophrenia.

Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (*MSIT) (No. 2021R1A2C2013479 and No. 2021M3A9E4080780, Bio & Medical Technology Development Program). *Ministry of Science and ICT

ABSTRACT. Introduction. Perceived self-efficacy (PSE), a concept developed by Bandura, refers to beliefs about people’s perceived ability to organize and execute a required course of action to achieve a specific result. PSE has an impact on efforts made to achieve goals, perseverance in the face of obstacles and resilience in the face of adversity. To increase an individual's PSE, positive past experiences, successful vicarious experiences, verbal encouragement and positively interpreted physiological states can be used. Studies have shown that PSE toward performing successfully in job interviews is associated with actual success of obtaining a job. Training for job interviews should therefore include strategies that strengthen PSE. In virtual reality (VR), candidates can practice job interviews in repetition, build multiple perspectives in answering questions, create personalized answers and select interviewers that trainees may perceived as unsettling (e.g., physical traits, stereotypes or implicit biases). This study aims to explore the effectiveness of embedding strategies to increase PSE in a job interview simulation in VR to increase PSE toward job interviews. Method. A total of 59 adults (62.7% female, 35.6% male, 1.7% non-binary) with a mean age of 29-year-old participated in the study. They were recruited from the general community and randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) reading a booklet about job interviews (control), (b) participating in a job interview in VR (JI-VR), or (c) participating in a job interview in VR with embedded stimulation of PSE (JI-VR-PSE). Participants had to select the interviewers they considered the most stressful or unsettling to lead the interview based on a set of 10 virtual characters. In the JI-VR intervention, the task consisted only in answering questions from the interviewers. In the JI-VR-PSE condition, interventions to strengthen PSE were provided with standardized feedback from the experimenter after the participant’s answered the questions. Self-reported measures of perceived self-efficacy toward job interviews and positive and negative affect (PANAS) were administered pre/post immersion. The Social Interaction Phobia Scale (SIPS) was administered at the beginning of the study to control for potential differences in social anxiety.

Results. A repeated measures ANCOVA with SIPS as covariable was performed on the PSE scale. No significant Time and Condition main effects were found (F(1,55) = 0.62, p=0.44, partial eta-squared = .01 and F(1,55)=0.07, p=0.80, partial eta-squared = .0, respectively). However, the Time by Condition interaction effect was significant (F(2,55) = 3.2, p = 0.048, partial eta-squared = .1), which was followed by orthogonal interaction contrasts. The contrast comparing the control condition to the JI-VR condition was not statistically significant (t = -1.5, p = .14), but the contrast comparing the JI-VR condition and the JI-VR-PSE condition was statistically significant (t = -2.52, p = 0.015) and confirmed the increase in PSE toward job interview was higher in the JI-VR-PSE condition. A similar pattern of results was found for the positive affect scale of the PANAS. The time effect and condition effect were non-significant. The interaction effect was significant (F(2,55)=3.55, p=0.04, eta-square partial= 0.11). The contrast comparing the control and JI-VR groups was non-significant (t= 0.31, p=0.76). Difference between the JI-VR group and the JI-VR-PSE group was significant (t=-2.17, p=0.03).

Conclusion. Previous studies conducted on job interviews in VR have not examined the impact of strategies to strengthen PSE and compared it to simply being subjected to a virtual job interview. The present study documented the effectiveness of enhancing perceived self-efficacy with standardized feedback in job interview training. The results suggest that practicing the interview in VR provided the opportunity to select from a variety of interviewers that may be unsettling to trainees and strengthen self-efficacy with strategies implemented during the immersion.

ABSTRACT. Context: Studies examining the psychological predictors of presence in virtual reality (VR) have highlighted the importance of anxiety experienced during immersions. Many of these studies have been conducted with clinically anxious participants exposed to anxiety provoking stimuli during immersions in VR. In non-clinical samples, the role of general stress has not been thoroughly studied or compared to social anxiety. While social anxiety refers to the anticipation of a threat from social interactions, general stress refers to the anticipation of a challenge in general. The two concepts differ in intensity and in specificity. Studies have also focused on presence (the subjective feeling of being ‘there’), and much less on social presence, which is more specific and relevant to social interactions. Furthermore, perceived self-efficacy may influence social presence as it is a known buffer of stress and anxiety. Finally, there is no data on the relevance of these potential predictors in simulated job interviews in VR.

Objective and method: This study explored if social anxiety, general stress, and perceived self-efficacy to perform well in a job interview predict social presence in a community sample immersed in a virtual interview. In this study, a job interview was conducted in VR with adults seeking training to improve their interview skills. The sample consisted of 40 subjects over 18 years old (M = 30.3, S.D.=11.18; 57.5% female, 40% male, 2.5% non-binary) participating in a larger study on job interview training. Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions. Both conditions involved being immersed in a job interview led by two interviewers (one male, one female) in VR. The second condition added standardised feedback to the immersion to increase participants’ self efficacy about their performance. Self-reported measures of social anxiety (Social Interaction Phobia Scale, SIPS), general stress (Psychological Stress Measure, PSM), and perceived self-efficacy (Perceived Self-Efficacy to Perform Well in Job Interviews, PSE-PWJI) were administered pre/post immersion, with the addition of a social presence measure post-immersion (Social Presence from Gerhard et al, 2001).

Results. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to predict social presence with the following variables as predictors: the experimental condition (to control for differences in what was experienced in VR), pre/post residualized change score in SIPS, pre/post residualized change score in PSM, and pre/post residualized change score in PSE-PWJI. The multiple regression was significant (F(4,39) = 2.85, p < .05, R2 = .25, Adj R2 = .16). Among the predictors in the model, the role of the experimental condition was statistically significant (t = -2.12, p < .05), as well as the role of the general stress measure (residualized change score in PSM, t = 2.41, p < .05, part sr = .35). The role of social anxiety was not statistically significant, although this was marginal (residualized change score in SIAS, t = 1.81, p = .07, part sr = .27). The role of self efficacy was not statistically significant and associated with a small effect size (residualized change score in PSE-PWJI, t = .64, p = .51, part sr = .09).

Conclusions. Analyses showed that a general measure of stress was the best predictor of social presence. With more statistical power, social anxiety could have reached statistical significance. This supports initial impressions that while anxiety may be relevant to predict presence within clinical samples, general stress may be more suitable to predict presence within community samples, at least for social presence within a virtual job interview.

ABSTRACT. The availability of virtual reality (VR) in numerous clinical contexts has been made possible by recent technological advancements. One application is using VR for cognitive interventions with individuals who have mental disorders. Predicting the emotional states of users could help to prevent their discouragement during VR interventions. We can monitor the emotional states of individuals using sensors like an external camera, as they engage in various tasks within VR environments. The emotional state of VR users can be measured through arousal and valence, as per the Circumplex model. We used the Remote Collaborative and Affective Interactions (RECOLA) database of emotional behaviours. We processed video frames from 18 RECOLA videos. Due to the headset in VR systems, we detected faces and cropped the images of faces to use the lower half of the face only. We labeled the images with arousal and valence values to reflect various emotions. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs), specifically MobileNet-v2 and ResNets-18, were then used to predict arousal and valence values. MobileNet-v2 outperforms ResNet-18 as well as others from the literature. We achieved a root mean squared error (RMSE), Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC), and Concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) of 0.1495, 0.6387, and 0.6081 for arousal, and 0.0996, 0.6453, and 0.6232 for valence. Our work acts as a proof-of-concept for predicting emotional states from arousal and valence values via visual data of users immersed in VR experiences. In the future, predicted emotions could be used to automatically adjust the VR environment for individuals engaged in cognitive interventions.

ABSTRACT. Background: Recent reviews show promising results for a variety of different VR-based methodologies seeking to support wellbeing. However, there are gaps in our understanding of how the VR experience itself enacts change in the user. In short, what features of the VR experience matter for bringing about change in wellbeing outcomes. While features such as nature and activities such as mindfulness and relaxation are widely used at present, their efficacy compared to alternatives are underexplored. This study tested some aspects typically found in VR wellbeing studies, which focus on the power of VR-based nature against an alternative protocol which sought to encourage connection with personal identity and self through introducing meaning into the VR experience. The present study aimed to examine the impact of VR environment setting (nature vs. urban) and the personal meaning of the environment (meaningful vs. not meaningful) on participants’ emotion responses.

Method: Procedure: A 2 x 2 within-subjects design was used. Participants experienced four different VR scenarios (e.g. nature + meaningful; urban + not meaningful etc…) in counterbalanced order. Google Earth VR (GEVR) was used to present each of these conditions. GEVR allows participants to freely roam around a VR version of a real world location. In each condition, three separate locations were visited by the participant for 3 minutes each. In meaningful conditions, participants were asked to ‘think of a place that has meaning to you that you would like to visit now’. In comparison in the non-meaningful location, participants experienced three experimenter chosen locations in either a nature or urban setting. Participants completed measures of emotion response at baseline and following each condition. Participants: The final sample contained 35 participants (18 FM, 16 M, 1 N/A; age M = 28.13, SD = 9.64). Measures: Emotion response was measured using the Discrete Emotions Scale (DEQ) which has subscales for 3 positive (desire, happiness and relaxation) and 5 negative (fear, anger, disgust, anxiety, sadness) emotions. Total positive emotions and total negative emotions subscales scores were calculated by adding scores for all positive and all negative emotion subscales respectively.

Results: A main effect of personal meaning was observed whereby interacting with personally meaningful locations in VR increased positive emotion responses compared to non-meaningful ones, irrespective of the setting. Sadness, desire and happiness all increased in meaningful conditions, while fear decreased. There were no main effects of setting or interaction effects.

Conclusion This study demonstrated that specific aspects of the VR experience can be manipulated and have a differential impact on emotion response. Contrary to previous research, nature stimuli did not impact emotion response. Adding an element of personal meaning to the VR experience was associated with a change in emotion response, irrespective of setting. Specifically greater total positive emotions without any change in total negative emotions. The increase of sadness, desire and happiness together may suggest a nostalgia response to the meaningful locations. Limitations: The absence of nature sounds, dynamic nature stimuli and a differential level of freedom of movement in nature compared to urban settings in GEVR may explain the lack of impact of nature exposure. The meaningful locations were selected for their meaning to the individual, but the design of the study did not allow whether the VR experience was in itself meaningful to be measured. A second study is currently underway to examine whether the differential effectiveness of meaning compared to more common nature experiences is maintained when these limitations are addressed. Nevertheless, the current results suggest that introducing personal meaning into VR experiences may have utility and warrants further investigation.

ABSTRACT. Background. Adoption of virtual reality (VR) in clinical practice is still limited due to implementation barriers such as cost. To address this barrier, this study comprises two experiments focused on assessing the efficacy and user experience of a 360° nature video for relaxation presented via different devices. First, we compared the efficacy and user experience of three low-cost smartphone VR headsets. Subsequently, the most adequate out of these smartphone VR headsets was compared to a high-end Meta Quest 2 VR headset and a laptop screen.

Sample. For both experiments, first-year students of the Applied Psychology department of Thomas More University of Applied Sciences were recruited. For experiment 1, we also recruited adults from the general public. In experiment 1, we included 87 participants (14 men, 70 women, 2 non-binary) aged between 7 and 59 years old (M= 20.62, SD= 5.67). In experiment 2, we included 61 participants (7 men, 52 women, 2 non-binary) aged between 17 and 28 years old (M= 18.75, SD= 1.77). For both experiments, individuals with a neurological disorder (i.e. epilepsy) and severe neck complaints were excluded.

Methods. The 360° nature video consisted of five one-minute segments depicting multiple locations of a Belgian park. In experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to watch this 360° video through one of three available smartphone VR headsets: Bobo VRZ6 (N=29), Shinecon GO2ED (N=30), Shinecon SC-GO6E (N=28). In experiment 2, participants were randomly assigned to watch the 360° video through one of three devices: Bobo VRZ6 (N=22), Meta Quest 2 (N=19), laptop (N=20). In both experiments, pre-to-post changes in participant’s stress (tension) and degree of relaxation were assessed with the tension subscale of the Profile of Mood States questionnaire (POMS), a visual analogue scale (VAS), and physiological measures with the Empatica E4 wristband. User experience (attractiveness, perspicuity, efficiency, dependability, stimulation and novelty) was assessed with the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ). Additionally, in experiment 1, participants assessed the usability of the other headsets after their assigned intervention and ranked all headsets on factors of usability (comfort, visual and audio quality, preference, ease of use). In experiment 2, sense of presence was assessed with the Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ).

Results. For experiment 1, the three groups reported to feel more relaxed, VAS: F(1,83)=71.19, p<.001) and less tense, POMS: F(1,84)=121.33, p<.001, after watching the 360° video, irrespective of the headset used. There were no significant differences in user experience between test groups, UEQ: Fs<1.36, ps>.26. The ranking questions, however, revealed that on a qualitative level, participants preferred the Bobo VR headset. For experiment 2, the three groups reported to feel more relaxed, VAS: F(1,58)=31.53, p<.001, and less tense, POMS: F(1,58)=52.44, p<.001, after watching the 360° video, irrespective of the medium used. With respect to user experience, results showed significant differences between groups on attractiveness, UEQ: F(2,60)=3.78, p=.03; spatial presence, IPQ: F(2,60)=4.00, p=.02; and involvement, IPQ: F(2,60)=6.64, p=.003. Specifically, each VR headset group was rated as more attractive than the laptop, and participants felt more attentive towards the VR headsets than the laptop. There were no differences between the VR headset groups. Unexpectedly, participants in the laptop group reported higher spatial presence than those in the VR headset groups. Results of the physiological analyses are not yet available.

Conclusion. This study shows that using a low-cost smartphone VR headset can be as effective as a high-end VR headset to present a 360° nature video for relaxation, which indicates that smartphone VR might be a feasible alternative for healthcare organization that cannot afford high-end VR headsets.

ABSTRACT. Creating and sharing content labelled #fitspiration that ostensibly inspires fitness is very popular on image-based social media sites. #Fitspiration has become increasingly prevalent on Instagram over the past decade, rising from 1.8 million posts in 2014 to over 19.5 million posts in 2021. Despite its popularity, #fitspiration content has faced considerable criticism. Past analyses of #fitspiration, using social media posts extracted between 2014 and 2016, have highlighted its problematic messaging surrounding diet, exercise, and appearance. Furthermore, cross-sectional and experimental research have linked engagement with #fitspiration content to a range of negative mental health outcomes, including negative body image and disordered eating. It is possible that #fitspiration content has changed since 2014-16, in light of the criticism that it has faced, as well as in response to other societal changes (e.g., the covid-19 pandemic, the growing body positivity movement). The present study aims to compare recent #fitspiration content on Instagram with past analyses of data from 2014 (Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). In doing so, we aim to provide an understanding of how constructions of fitness within #fitspiration Instagram spaces may have evolved. To do this, 1000 posts labelled #fitspiration were extracted from Instagram in January 2021 and analysed using content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. These images were then compared to 1000 ‘#fitspiration’ posts from January 2014 (taken from Deighton-Smith & Bell, 2018). Content analysis showed images mainly contained exercise-related content, people, and text. People were predominately shown in gendered and objectified ways, and conformed to societal appearance ideals surrounding thinness and muscularity. Though similar to the 2014 dataset, significantly more exercise images, and significantly fewer diet images were found. There were also fewer thin and/or muscular bodies, and fewer markers of objectification. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse text contained within images. Three themes were developed; (1) “Never miss a Monday”: Fitness and health have rules, (2) Just do it: Lifting the weight of self-doubt, and (3) Strive to be the best: Consequences of decision-making. Like the 2014 dataset, themes constructed thin and muscular bodies as the desired end-goal of fitness and emphasised personal responsibility for fitness practices. However, some messages from 2014 were less salient (e.g., equating fitness with sexual attractiveness) and also different ways of motivating fitness were identified (e.g., through instruction). Combined, analyses highlight how #fitspiration content in 2021 was very similar to 2014, but with more emphasis on exercise and slightly less on appearance. The findings of the study have important implications for researchers interested in fitness-related social media spaces, who need to recognise that content found within hashtags is not static, but instead changes over time, in tandem with broader societal shifts. The findings also have important implications for intervention; developing an awareness of the issues associated with #fitspiration content among both creators and consumers may help to minimise the risks associated with it.

ABSTRACT. An online psychological intervention focused on Body Compassion in breast cancer survivors

Introduction Breast cancer seriously infringes on survivors’ Body Image, leading to changes in their emotional well-being [1]. Studies demonstrated the relevance of promoting resources to deal with bodily issues by treating themselves with kindness and support, known as self-compassion [2]. At the same time, online interventions are a cost-effective way to address persistent challenges and stay connected with others [3]. Despite the positive impact of self-compassion and online interventions, specific changes in bodily representations in breast cancer survivors are still unclear. This study assessed a one-month psychological intervention in a group focused on Body Compassion (BC) to promote positive emotions and Body Image in breast cancer survivors through an online program.

Methods 18 women agreed to participate in the present study voluntarily. Then, they signed an informed consent before enrollment. Participants were required to be over 18 years of age and with a history of breast cancer in the past. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The total sample has an average age of 50.66 years (range 34 – 69 years old; DS = 8.97). The psychological intervention consisted of four online psychological sessions weekly conducted in March 2022. Specifically, the psychological intervention was focused on BC and its related emotional consequences after breast cancer. Moreover, psychological sessions addressed how to manage BC issues. A battery of questionnaires (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and Body Image Scale) has been administered before and after the intervention.

Results A within-study design has been implemented to compare anxiety, depression, and Body Image before and after the intervention. Significant results emerged for anxiety, F (1,17) = 9.264, p = .007, η_p^2 = .353 (M = 10.61; DS = 4.07 pre-intervention and M = 8.38; DS = 4.18 post-intervention). However, no significant results emerged related to depression and Body Image.

Discussion This online psychological intervention evidenced the benefits of a BC program on breast cancer survivors ‘well-being. The relatively small and self-selected sample size might be a limitation. Future research should explore women’s motivation to participate in an intervention focused on their needs [4].

References 1. V. Sebri, I. Durosini, and G. Pravettoni, "The Body after Cancer: A Qualitative Study on Breast Cancer Survivors’ Body Representation", International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19.19 (2022): 12515. 15. 2. E. González-Hernández, D. Campos, R. Diego-Pedro, R. Romero, R., R. Baños, R., L. T. Negi, and A. J. Cebolla, “Changes in the semantic construction of compassion after the cognitively-based compassion training (CBCT®) in women breast cancer survivors”, The Spanish Journal of Psychology, (2021), 24 3. M. J. Esplen, L. Trachtenberg, “Online interventions to address body image distress in cancer”, Current opinion in supportive and palliative care (2020), 14(1), 74-79. 4. Savioni, L., Triberti, S., Durosini, I., Sebri, V., & Pravettoni, G. (2021). Cancer patients’ participation and commitment to psychological interventions: a scoping review. Psychology & Health, 1-34.

ABSTRACT. In 2020, more than 19 million people were diagnosed with cancer worldwide. Thanks to the growing success of cancer therapy and detection, survival rates of many oncological diseases have increased in the last decades, leading the number of survivors to increase over time. Relationships represent a primary starting point to improve patients’ well-being. Caregivers, and in particular partners, are indeed the most important source of support for patients, and their role is essential for the patient to successfully cope with the challenges associated with the cancer journey. Nevertheless, the complications that follow oncological treatments, such as impaired sexuality, put a strain on the patient’s relationship, posing challenges for the couple and negatively affecting coping success throughout the survivorship. The aim of this study is to develop a transformative experience to improve the well-being of couples who went through an oncological journey, by using immersive Virtual Reality (iVR). In particular, this transformative experience will guide a cancer patient’s caregiver (i.e., partner) to understand the difficulties that their significant other is experiencing, providing the opportunity to feel what they are suffering and the problems they are facing. Feeling what the other is feeling creates a bridge between the two people's experiences, facilitating not only the acceptance of these changes but also an emotional awareness of what is happening. The VR experience will employ an Embodied Perspective-Taking (EPT) paradigm, used to help the partner of a cancer survivor (i.e., the caregiver) to experience what the patient went through. Specifically, EPT will create in the participant the perceptual illusion of taking the perspective of the partner, allowing the caregiver to see through their eyes, from a first-person perspective. Once the partner is embodied in the avatar (i.e., the patient), they will experience the partner’s oncological journey, from the diagnosis to the current daily life (i.e., after the end of treatments). This experience includes multimodal stimulations, to create greater involvement in the task, and a deeper perception of being in their partner’s body. We expect that the EPT will facilitate the caregiver in the use of empathic communication toward their partner, supporting them in understanding possible complications experienced in their relationship (e.g., impaired sexuality associated with reduced self-esteem due to aesthetic outcomes of surgery). To understand if this transformative experience has an impact on the domains of interest, an assessment will be carried out before and after the experience itself, including also a follow-up to evaluate if the effect persists over time. The assessments will include in-person communication of the caregiver to the partner, and self-reported questionnaires that the patient and the partner will complete, to analyze if the experience has an impact on the partner, on the patient, and their relationship. Visually seeing the different steps of the oncological journey (i.e., scenario) while listening to what their significant other is thinking and feeling (i.e., the story telling told from a first person perspective) will provide the emotional and cognitive richness that is necessary to promote a change in the way the partner looks at their own and at their significant other’s experience: it will be possible to make accessible and understandable what is epistemically inaccessible (i.e., vicariously undergoing the experience lived by another person), with the sensory wholeness of real life experiences.

ABSTRACT. 1.Introduction Virtual Reality is nowadays used in many contexts related to patient care and treatment, such as Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer, PTSD, and many other neuropsychological (e.g., anxiety, depression) and neurophysiological (e.g., pain) disorders. Virtual Reality is also largely used in an oncological context, focusing on physical and psychological symptoms. Some of these studies have found encouraging results regarding the use of Virtual Reality to increase satisfaction in oncological care, reduce cancer-related psychological symptoms and pain, and improve treatment adherence. For example, studies showed that Virtual Reality could support patients during different phases of cancer treatments by reducing their distress (e.g., during chemotherapy). Regarding feasibility, Virtual Reality is a tool easy to use and without risk for participants. Moreover, Virtual Reality could be considered very inexpensive for health institutions. In this line, it is important to understand oncologists' attitudes about the use of Virtual Reality to promote patients' well-being. 2.Material and Methods This study will investigate oncologists' attitudes towards Virtual Reality. Specifically, we will explore four specific types of Virtual Reality applications that will allow cancer patients to 1) reduce pain, 2) promote relaxation during cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy), 3) improve physical rehabilitation (e.g., through physical activities), and 4) educate about the procedures connected to cancer treatments and procedures (e.g., knowing the specific steps that patients have to deal with radiotherapy). Oncologists or oncology residents who work in an Italian hospital will be asked to read a brief description of the use of Virtual Reality in these four scenarios and observe an example image related to the use of Virtual Reality for patients' pain reduction, relaxation, rehabilitation, and health education. Afterward, participants will be invited to rate on a Likert scale of agreement how much they perceive any application of Virtual Reality as - for example - Useful, Innovative, and Effective. Other psychological variables will also be assessed to explore any possible influence of these aspects on healthcare professionals' attitudes towards Virtual Reality (e.g., personality traits, decisional self-efficacy). 3.Results Data collection is ongoing. We expect that oncologists will show more interest and positive attitudes towards the use of Virtual Reality as a tool to facilitate patients' cancer journey. We also expect that some psychological variables will impact these attitudes. 4.Conclusion Virtual Reality is now used in the oncological context. Exploring the attitudes of oncologists about these technologies could help a better implementation of Virtual Reality in the context of care.

Acknowledgments: M.S. is a Ph.D. student within the European Schoolof Molecular Medicine (SEMM).

ABSTRACT. Introduction In current years, psychological web-based interventions had been increasingly used in the context of mental health and well-being. These approaches offer great pros in terms of cost and time-saving benefits and the possibility of reaching persons remotely. Usually, such interventions make use of techniques and exercises taken from cognitive behavioural approaches, which are traditionally carried out in a vis-à-vis setting. However, some relevant differences emerge in applying the same techniques remotely or in person, namely the presence of the therapist, the familiarity of the setting, and the possibility for the therapist to adjust the technique and for the patients to interact with his/her therapist and provide feedback. One of the approaches that often yield good results in treating anxiety and stress issues, is the mental imagery approach. The current pilot study aims to preliminary assess the feasibility and the subjective experience of a fully automated web-based mental imagery experience, delivered through a digital platform. Material and Methods An estimated sample of 30 healthy volunteers will be enrolled in this feasibility study. The study will be conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and participants will be informed of the aims of the research and will be asked to express informed written consent. Subjects will receive a link with a Qualtrics survey and will be asked to listen to a pre-registered audio clip with a mental imagery technique on stress reduction. The audio clip was pre-tested on three healthy volunteers to assess the clarity of the instructions and checked by two trained psychotherapists. The online survey will contain the module of informed written consent, and an ad hoc survey assessing socio-demographical variables and self-reported questionnaires on trait anxiety (State Trait Anxiety Inventory) before the audio clip, emotional state (Self-Assessment Manikin) before and after the technique, and, at the end of the survey, the sense of presence (ITC-Sense of presence inventory) experienced. Finally, participants will also be asked to answer three open-ended questions to describe their imaginative experience and give suggestions to modify the technique. The time duration for the online survey and the audio clip is approximately 15 minutes. Results Data collection is ongoing. We expect participants to experience a pleasant emotional state, a reduction of the arousal levels and an enhanced perception of control over the emotional state after the technique. We also expect participants to report a fair level of sense of presence during the imaginative technique. Conclusion Results will inform the construction of web-based interventions featuring effective mental imagery techniques with fully automated instructions. Such techniques will be feasible for mental health interventions targeting anxiety and stress in clinical samples and the general population.

ABSTRACT. Context: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) can significantly impact patient’s life, leading to potentially dramatic outcomes such as suicide. Additionally, MDD can also result in significant economic costs for families and governments. One of the most effective and rapid treatment for MDD is Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT). However, cognitive adverse effects remain a great risk among patients undergoing ECT. These side effects are robustly tied to the dosage of the electric stimulus given to the patient. Two methods are currently used to determine an accurate dosage : the age-based method and the titration method. Furthermore electroencephalograms (EEG) are made during an ECT session, to assess the adequacy of the treatment. Therefore, Artificial Intelligence (AI) could offer a third way, by analyzing the EEG before the shock is administrated (called the pre-ictal EEG), using deep learning algorithms, to determine the adequate dosage of the electric stimulus needed.

Method: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a technique used to decompose signals, including EEG signals, into their frequency components. By applying FFT to an EEG signal, we are able to understand the signal in terms of its different frequencies, rather than just looking at it as a time series. Each EEG signal can be thought of as a stack of multiple decomposed signals, typically covering the frequency range from 1 to 100 Hz. Once the EEG signal has been decomposed using FFT, we fed them into the our Fuzzy Causal Effect Variational Auto Encoder (FCEVAE) deep learning algorithm. The FCEVAE allows us to quantify the degree to which different frequency components of the EEG signal are contributing to the final ECT output. This is represented by a value known as the probability, which ranges from 0 to 1. For example, if the oscillations of the 10th and 14th components of a pre-ictal EEG have a 90% contribution to the final ECT output, the FCEVAE output would be w_(10, 14) = 0.9. In summary, the use of FFT in combination with FCEVAE is a powerful tool for analyzing EEG signals, allowing us to decompose the signals into their frequency components and quantify the degree to which different frequency components are contributing to the final output. We implemented an FCEVAE model to identify patterns in patients' pre-ictal EEGs that lead to positive or negative outcomes of the ECT session. These outcomes were determined by the clinician in charge of the ECT session, based on the EEG assessment. A total of 470 pre-ictal EEGs were collected. Out of these, 350 were used to train the FCEVAE model, while 120 were reserved for testing.

Results: The FCEVAE is capable of revealing the causal patterns within the pre-ictal EEG that contribute to achieve ECT positive outcomes. Also, it can predict individualized ECT dosage based on patient’s pre-ictal EEG. The FCEVAE model had an overall accuracy of 90.33%, as measured by the root mean square measure.

Conclusions: The FCEVAE seems to be a powerful tool for analyzing pre-ictal EEG and providing valuable insights into the causal patterns that contribute to achieve positive ECT outcomes. Moreover, the FCEVAE model is actually able to predict individualized ECT doses based on pre-ictal EEG with an overall accuracy of 90.33%. The use of FCEVAE seems promising in the field of EEG analysis and ECT, although further research is needed to optimize the model and its clinical applications.

ABSTRACT. Affective computing is a rapidly growing field that aims to understand human emotions through Artificial Intelligence. One of the most promising ways to achieve this goal is the use of physiological data (e.g. electrocardiogram - ECG) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to classify affective states. ECG correlates, such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and its features, are reported as viable indicators in both dimensional approaches, especially for valence, and in detecting discrete emotions. In this preliminary study, we used the ECG data from the open-source HCI Tagging Database, which includes physiological data and self-referred feedback from 30 subjects who watched videos designed to elicit different emotions. The subjects evaluated their reactions using a three-dimensional affective space defined by arousal, valence, and dominance levels and reported the emotions they felt. To classify the affective states, we trained and tested different classification algorithms on the HRV features, using as labels, each self-reported feedback (i.e., valence, arousal, dominance, and emotions). The results showed that HRV features, when combined with normalization methods and ML algorithms, were effective in recognizing emotions as experienced by individuals. In particular, the study showed that Decision Tree was the best-performing algorithm for predicting emotions based on HRV data. Additionally, an Explainable AI (XAI) model provided insights into the weight of these features in the ML discrimination phases. Overall, the study highlights the potential of HRV as a valid and unobtrusive source for detecting emotional states.

ABSTRACT. From 2000 to 2009, insomnia in military personnel increased 73-fold. We found that 20% (nearly 441,000 reserve and active duty across branches) of active duty service members had insomnia pre-deployment, 74% while deployed, and 33% post-deployment. Insomnia is a significant risk factor for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicidality, substance abuse, and pain. While Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) has considerably more long-term effectiveness than medications, there are not enough providers trained to deliver CBTI, partially because there are too few training opportunities. We developed and tested CBTIweb as a user-friendly and engaging training platform to increase provider access to CBTI training. Since its launch (April 1, 2020), CBTIweb has provided an entire course of didactic training (equivalent to a typical 8-hour workshop provided by leaders in the field) to more than 1400 providers. Thus, CBTIweb is clearly addressing the shortage of providers trained in CBTI. In comparison to CBTIweb, only 1050 Veterans Administration (VA) providers have completed the in-person didactics in the past 10 years as part of a national dissemination of CBTI. However, after didactic training in a new intervention (e.g., CBTI), therapists require supervised clinical training to achieve competence with human standardized patients (HSPs). Unfortunately, HSPs are limited by high costs, training efforts, and inconsistencies in their ability to accurately depict patients. In addition, new standardized patients often need to be trained every year, requiring more costs, variance, and trainer time. Thus, there is a serious need for technology that allows clinicians-in-training to practice CBTI first with interactive Virtual Standardized Patients that are based on real-life patients before their supervised clinical training. Building on our previous successes, we are utilizing state-of-the-science virtual reality, artificial intelligence (AI), and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to develop and test robust web-based Virtual Insomnia PatientsTM (VIPs) platform and integrate it into CBTIweb. The VIP AI responds strategically to provider input by utilizing a combination of expert systems and deep learning techniques such as the transformer architecture. The expert system uses the content collected from the Structured Clinical Interview for Sleep Disorders (SCISD) and military CBTI studies, stored in the VIP content storage system, as its knowledge base. Our VSPs involve a hybrid design process that mixes Agile and User-Centered iterative approaches with 3 main components: 1) realistic and artificially intelligent avatars for interacting with training clinicians; 2) front-end system that implements multiple virtual avatars of varying race, ethnicity, and genders built using the Unity game engine; 3) back-end system that handles data storage, automates diagnostic accuracy and therapist fidelity measures to provide real-time comparison and feedback. The real-time feedback system employs natural language processing of a trainee’s textual interactions with the VIP using computational models from the language used by real-life trained therapists. The VIP platform involves a universal storage language for the VIP dialog and symptoms that is updatable by trained clinicians, as well as a standardized 3D model system for the avatars allowing the selection of animations to match symptoms. This design relies on rapid internal and external testing to get user experience data throughout all iterations of development which is possible due to the idea that each of the sub-components of the platform can be built and tested independently and then merged with minimal effort. In summary, up to 74% of service members suffer from the consequences of insomnia (e.g., worse quality of life and resilience, physical and mental health, and increased fatigue and risk for occupational accidents and disability). VIPs will increase the availability of treatment and thereby improve service members’ psychosocial functioning, psychological and physical health, and overall fitness and decrease accidents and military expenses.

ABSTRACT. Goals. The research goals are: (1) computational text analysis of famous speeches of Russian political figures: Peter the Great [1672–1725], Vladimir Ilyich Lenin [1870–1924], Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin [1878–1953], Vladimir Vladimirovich Zhirinovsky [1946–2022]; (2) the study of psychological personality traits of leaders who have an oratorical impact on the listening social group. Methods. The data for the analysis were the leaders' speeches, which were delivered in similar situations – in front of the troops to raise morale before decisive moments in state history: Peter the Great's Poltava speech (1709); Vladimir Lenin's the appeal to the Red Army (1919); Joseph Stalin's speech on the 24th Anniversary of the October Revolution (1941); Vladimir Zhirinovsky's speech on the occasion of the events in Georgia (2008). The source of data was the texts in Russian and the texts translated into English. The texts were analyzed in terms of the unconscious emotional impact of the leader's speech on the mass audience. The lexical emotional coloring and semantic analysis of the background were also carried out. Text-based semantic analysis was conducted using the psycholinguistic expert system VAAL(2000). The personality and psychological qualities of the speaker were identified. Additionally, we generated synthetic text data using ChatGPT (Open AI; USA), using engineering prompts (questions) about (a) the positive tone of political leaders' speeches and (2b) positive behavior, positive attitude, mental health, well-being from ones. Then we applied an emotion-based text classification using a pre-trained BERT model (BERT-base-uncased-finetuned-emotion: precision 0.9454; F1 0.9458; loss 0.1476) from the synthetic texts (ChatGPT's responses). This processing pipeline was designed as an advanced approach to obtaining computational insights into emotional leadership behavior. Results. Qualitative indicators were obtained (1) based on the ranking (rating) of leaders' personality characteristics on the basis of real texts (speeches) by means of emotional-lexical assessment and (2) based on the ranking of synthetic text classification (ChatGPT response) (2a) by the positive tone of a leader's specific speech and (2b) synthetic integral indicator of "joy" (positive behavior, positive attitude, mental health, well-being). Qualitative ratings on the "benevolence" scale (expert system (VAAL) coincided with the positive tone and the integral indicator of "joy". Conclusion. By the computational analysis of the leaders' speech test by the expert system VAAL and by the text classification the synthetic tests ranking of all leaders coincided. This indicates that the level of development of decision support systems using large language models (LLM/AI) is approaching the level of expert systems. With the further development of AI-technology there are great prospects for its use as a system for assessing the personal characteristics of public leaders. Acknowledgement: the research was prepared ... Note: the full paper (file) will be uploaded.

ABSTRACT. Creative HCI are developing extremely fast in 2022. Humans and machine intelligence need cooperation and collaboration, which arise when artificial models (e.g., such as « Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation»: DALL-E; CLIP) can already act as a part of ecosystem of intelligences, as a member in a hybrid team. Text-to-image applications being type of creative HCI tool provide useful assistance, creative experience and technical advantages. Any creator and engineer can get the power of keywords which are be entered as a prompt with meaning for calculation digital drawing. Artworks of art by Gustav Klimt and neuroornament inspired this initiative to create a library of images (called GALA), which becomes a creative example of HCI and an object-material for further research on interaction and perception. GALA, Generative Art Library's Abstractions, is a public library of AI-generated images for applied research in the cyber-psychological community (CYPSY). Case examples. No. 1. Interactive perception of positively colored generative images, life satisfaction and well-being in the diagnostic mobile app. One example is a study of positive personality based on image perception. In doing so, we relied on the context (prompt) of the generated image and used a set of images in the same color scheme to exclude the influence of the emotional component on the color choice, as well as the semantic artistic theme of the abstract picture. Polar keywords such as "life – death", "fear – courage", "love – hate", etc. were used as context for prompting "at the entrance" (Supplementary). No. 2. HCI dialogs using visual language. The second example is the use of images in terms of visual language. Emotional visual interaction plays an important role in HCI R&D by providing a collaborative environment and improving team communication. The concept of HCI dialogue in teams is supported by visual dialogues. A prepared interactive framework allows users to interact with each other using a visual language (VL). A VL is some abstraction and/or symbol used in dialogs as words, similar to verbal dialogs with names, words or phrases; it is represented as a set of 2D cards with images from GALA library. The appearance of the card is a manifestation of the new VL with artistic symbols. The novelty of the application lies in the new VL-based in-group communication protocol, which speeds up the working processes in a single, collective and coherent group field. No. 3. Moods in VR settings. The mood-colored images (GALA) were implemented in a VR space, where virtual rooms with different "emotional" settings were developed. Users virtually can enter the atmosphere of abstract artistic images decorating the interior space and passively interact with them. At the same time, it allows to assess the pleasantness and rejection of users' choice of rooms of interest with a certain mood. On the one hand, this is one example of the use of generative imagery in VR study. On the other hand, a similar approach can be used by the researchers in other multimedia environments. Conclusion. The results were used to select state-of-the-art images and uploaded to the GALA library (github; Supplement - Figures), which is available to the CYPSY community. They can be used for benchmarking, end-to-end evaluation, and advanced design. We can emphasize that these digital fingerprints are valuable as cyber art objects and as starting points for organizing and designing new research. The above examples (above) may reveal just a few possibilities for using AI-generated creative art content for to explore CYPSY in greater depth. Respectfully, GALA is a valuable visualization resource for next-generation R&D in multimedia HCI. Any inputs and suggestions from the CYPSY community are welcome.

ABSTRACT. This symposium will cover three empirical research studies generated from a predominantly African American and Caucasian sample of non-clinical university students in the United States, who completed a battery of surveys focusing on fear of missing out (FoMO), social media use, technology dependence, internet-based coping, and exposure to perceived online racism. Independent studies were conducted to examine the potential moderating impact of resilience on technology dependence, the connection between interpersonal dependency and technology use and attitudes, and how personality may insulate or exacerbate the negative impacts of perceived online racism. This symposium will present the results from the primary investigators of each study, as well as the real-world implications of the results. Attendees will be exposed to cross-cultural differences observed within the United States and be invited to have open discussion and dialogue related to patterns and trends observed across international populations.

Talk 1: Interpersonal dependency, technology use and individual attitudes Talk 2: Transactional Coping: Can Resilience Moderate the Impact of Technology Dependence? Talk 3: Updating beliefs: How personality may influence perceived online racism

ABSTRACT. Interpersonal Dependency (ID) and its components are crucial factors in understanding technology adoption and usage. This current research into the influence of dependent personality styles gauged psychological, behavioral, and attitudinal outcomes of personal technology use. Findings show that ID influences the fear of missing out, technology dependency, and distinct attitudinal differences.

Interpersonal Dependency (ID) is a complex personality style. ID is focused on increased investment and reliance on close, valued relationships and is comprised of functional (FD) and emotional (ED) dependency types, influencing both adaptive and maladaptive attachment strategies. Considering access to advanced technologies and continual social connectedness, ID is vital in understanding how individuals adopt, view, and experience tech use. This study utilized various surveys which gauged the behavioral, psychological, and attitudinal outcomes associated with personal tech use. Results indicated ID was positively correlated with FoMO, PMPU, tech dependency, and positive and negative attitudes toward tech. Participants with higher levels of both ED and FD reported increased FoMO, PMPU, and dependence. However, there were distinct differences in attitudes toward tech — increased levels of ED endorsed more positive views of tech, while similar levels of FD noted more negative attitudes toward tech. ID research affords the opportunity to explore more innate nuances of tech usage and attitudes, adding to the crucial discussion of problematic use, dependency, and addiction to technology.

ABSTRACT. Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional Model of Stress and Coping states an individual’s perceived stress is influenced by their appraisal of the stressor and their ability to cope. Using this model, this presentation will discuss the impact of resilience on the relationship between perceived stress, FoMO, and technology dependence, and the influence of FoMO on stress and technology dependence.

Lazarus and Folkman’s Transactional Model of Stress and Coping provides a framework to examine how individuals use cognitive reappraisals to evaluate stressors and their available coping resources. This model suggests that individuals appraise their ability to manage stressors, which influences their perceived stress levels and coping efforts. Through this lens, this talk will explore the impact of resilience on the relationship between perceived stress, FoMO, and technology dependence, and discuss FoMO and its influence on stress and technology dependence. Given the adverse outcomes that have been linked with technology dependence, including technology addiction being viewed as a maladaptive outcome of depression, it may be helpful to consider the impact of an individual’s resilience on this relationship, and potentially reframe how researchers understand digitally based coping behaviors in individuals with high stress levels. This presentation will present findings on predictors of technology dependence and social media use, as well as correlates of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress on FoMO, technology dependence, social media use, and resilience.

ABSTRACT. Certain personality characteristics may mean an individual is more inclined to recognize experiences that members of other groups encounter. This is important when considering groups in a position of perceived power who do not experience the same discrimination as racially minoritized groups. Similarly, specific personality characteristics may indicate an individual is more inclined to update beliefs after a significant event. Certain personality traits may indicate an individual is more inclined to recognize the experiences members of another group encounter. This may be especially important when considering groups in a position of perceived power who do not experience the same degree of discrimination as racially minoritized groups. Specific personality traits may also indicate whether an individual is more inclined to update beliefs after a significant event (e.g., death of George Floyd). In our sample of Black and White individuals combined, higher self-reported conscientiousness and openness showed statistically significant positive correlation to online mediated exposure to a racist reality (OMERR) subscale on the Perceived Online Racism Scale (PORS). Openness also showed a statistically significant positive relationship with the vicarious exposure to racial cyber-aggression (VERCA). We anticipate that Black individuals will report higher OMERR and VERCA scores than White individuals, and differences in OMERR and VERCA scores among White individuals dependent on personality and time spent online. Understanding personality’s role may enhance chances of leveraging change in systemic issues.

ABSTRACT. Background: One in every three women in the world is exposed to physical and/or sexual harassment from a partner. Sexual harassment occurs when women are targets of unwanted sexual comments, gestures, or actions from men, leading to social and psychological disorders including anxiety, depression, and loss of self-esteem. According to the literature, the perpetration of violent attitude against others is due to the lack of empathy, in particular to the inability to imagine themselves in the perspective of their victim. To this end, empathy training programs based on perspective taking were developed to promote prosocial behaviour and to prevent offenders’ recidivism. To overcome the limit of imaging themselves into the perspective of others, the immersive 360-degree video was recently adopted to induce a full body ownership illusion that allows a person to take the perspective of someone else in a pre-recorded scenario. This technology has demonstrated to be an efficacious medium to elicit empathy and to generate users’ engagement. Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the feasibility of the 360-degree video to induce the illusion from male to female body and to realise positive changes in empathy, perspective taking, violent attitude, and the sense of oneness compared to a traditional perspective taking task. Method. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (EP/PMDPSIC/0151/19). 25 men participated at the study, randomized in two conditions: 360-degree video n=14, narrative n=13. Average age is 28 years old (SD=10.44); education level: bachelor’s degree n=22 (88%); master’s degree n=3 (12%). The 360-degree video was a storytelling about a sexual harassment journey recorded from the female perspective, while the control condition had the same content written in first-person. At the beginning of the 360-degree video, participants were invited to follow a pre-recorded female performer body movements to induce the body swap illusion. The questionnaires administered were: Interpersonal Reactivity Index (T0); Empathy Scale (T0-T1); Attitude Towards Gender-Based Violence Scale (T0-T1); Oneness Scale (T1); Perspective Taking Scale (T1); Embodiment and Presence (T1). Results. Participants have high empathetic abilities assessed with IRI scale (M=3.89, SD=.80). Significant differences were found between conditions on perspective taking scale, t(23) = 2.284, p = .03; 95% CI (.42, .85); and oneness scale, t(23) = 2.401, p = .02; 95% CI (.11, 1.46). However, there were no significant difference between conditions for empathy, F(1,23) = .652, p = .428, η2p = 0.02, nor for violent attitude F(1,23) = .239, p = .630, η2p = .01. Regarding the effects of the 360-degree video on embodiment scores were significant for ownership, t(12) = 2.56, p = 0.025, and location, t(12) = 3.989, p = .002, but not for agency, t(12) = .834, p = .420. Moreover, participants felt significantly present in the environment, t(12) = 4.745, p = .001. Conclusions: The study demonstrated the limit of the immersive 360-degree video to elicit empathy. The no-significant difference (T0-T1) for empathy and violent attitude between conditions can be due to the low sample effect size, to the high score on empathy at baseline and to the assumption that the only short exposition to an emotive storytelling is not enough to change the empathetic skill. However, the study confirmed the feasibility of the 360-degree video to induce the body swap illusion from male to female victim of sexual harassment, beside to generate a significant level of presence. Furthermore, the 360-degree video showed significant results in eliciting perspective taking and the sense of oneness with the female victim, compared to the control condition, demonstrating the superiority of the immersive video format to generate participants’ engagement.

ABSTRACT. Immersive technologies, such as Virtual Reality (VR), have been shown to have potential in improving users’ emotions and well-being. However, there are several barriers to using VR for well-being, including cost, design, and the availability of diverse content. To understand how to effectively elicit positive emotions using VR across different age-groups, it is crucial to investigate which VR features are critical for that goal. Thus, our study aims to investigate the impact of immersion and virtual environment contents (natural vs. social) on different age-groups, as there is limited research on this aspect.

We recruited 38 undergraduates (19 women, 19 men, 22.4 ± 2.5 years old) and 24 older adults (17 women, 7 men, 70.3 ± 5.8 years old). The material consisted of two technologies with variable levels of immersion: a highly immersive Head-Mounted Display (HMD) and a less immersive computer screen (25-inch screen). The stimuli consisted of 360-degree videos validated in a previous study, with either natural, social or neutral (control) content. We employed both self-report and physiological measures of participants emotional responses. Self-reports consisted in valence and arousal ratings on the Self-Assessed Manikin Scale (SAM). Physiological emotional measures were acquired by the Empatica E4 wristband, which collects Electrodermal Activity (EDA) and Heart Rate. Additionally, the sense of presence was assessed with the Spatial Presence Experience Scale (SPES), and the Social Richness subscale from the Temple Presence Inventory (TPI-SR). Each participant was exposed to 360-degree videos on both a screen and an HMD in a counterbalanced order. For both levels of immersion, participants followed the same procedure. Participants were first asked to watch a control video (empty waiting room with shapes on the walls) twice for two minutes. The first viewing session served as a training phase so that the users could get comfortable with controlling the exploration in the 360° virtual world. During the second viewing, participants were asked to relax in order to record physiological data. Next, they watched two natural and then two social videos (or in the reverse order). After each video, participants filled out questionnaires to report their emotional feelings and sense of presence. Physiological data were acquired while viewing each video content. This procedure was repeated for each of the two technologies (HDM and screen).

As expected, the highly immersive HMD proved to be more efficient than the less immersive screen presentation for inducing positive emotions in both younger and older users. Interestingly, elderly users reported high levels of arousal for all videos viewed under the HMD, while younger adults reported variable arousal depending on the content viewed. Indeed, younger adults reported highest levels of arousal for social contents, followed by natural ones, and lastly the control content. Additionally, a raise in electrodermal activity can be observed when participants watched social contents under the HMD, confirming their arousing properties in comparison to natural contents. This raise in EDA is more pronounced for younger adults than their older counterparts, which goes in line with participants’ self-reported arousal. Preliminary analyses conducted on physiological responses indicate for all participants a Heart Rate deceleration while viewing natural contents, confirming their relaxing properties.

Overall, these preliminary findings suggest that while video content matters and lead to specific emotional responses in younger adults, older users reported high levels of positive emotions and arousal throughout most immersive experiences. Since these findings support the effectiveness of VR for fostering positive emotions in older users, potential applications for a “successful aging” or vulnerable users will be discussed.

ABSTRACT. Background: Awe experiences are characterized by feelings of perceived vastness and the need for accommodation (Keltner & Haidt, 2003); they occur when we perceive something that seems too big to fit into what we know, so it expands or rearranges our pattern of thoughts. This suggests that awe is sensitive to interindividual differences, making it difficult to define, capture, or prompt. Yet, despite its potential to be profoundly moving, with perspective shifts creating long-lasting changes (Stepanova et al., 2019), awe lacks attention from cognitive media theories (Sari, 2019). As storytellers now leverage the immersive capability of virtual reality (VR) to prompt awe, combining a powerful medium with an already strong emotional experience, they are creating the capacity for supercharged experiences. This study aims to better understand how awe is constructed in VR settings, based on the Theory of Constructed Emotions (Barrett, 2014), by testing the contribution of priming (how experiences are introduced) on the emotional appraisal of VR experiences. This theory presents emotion instances as predictive constructions integrating perceptual stimuli, stimuli knowledge, past experiences, internal changes, and emotional concepts.

Method: Participants: Thirty-eight participants (16M, 21F, 1NB) aged 18-75 (mean: 32.58, SD: 13.48) were recruited using volunteer communities and social media. Measures: Physiological data (heart-rate variability and electrodermal activity), duration perception, and self-reports (PANAS + eight awe-related items) were used to measure awe. Based on Chirico et al. (2018), the additional items measured three subscales: awe, perceived vastness, and need for accommodation. Four VR experiences were used as stimuli: 2 awe-inducing and 2 calm-inducing. They were presented using a Meta Quest 2 while physiological measures were collected using an Empatica E4 and Qualtrics was used to present and collect informed consent, duration perception, and questionnaires.

Procedure: The study used a mixed design with priming as a between-participants comparison and experience as a within-participants comparison. Priming was done by informing each half of the group verbally and through the informed consent form that they would experience 4 awe-inducing (vs. 4 calm-inducing) experiences.

After reading and signing the informed consent form, participants were told about the flow of the experiment and instructed on how to use the E4 wristband to generate time stamps (one button press). They underwent three baseline sessions (one in real-life and two in VR) to assess their duration perception skills and collect physiological data under neutral settings. The real-life baseline and first VR baseline were done before the four experiences, followed by the second VR baseline. After each of the four experiences, participants completed the adapted PANAS (question order was randomized each time). After the second VR baseline, participants provided their demographics, VR user experience, and English language proficiency as potential mediators of emotion construction.

Results: Results of awe and calm experiences were averaged for relevant variables. Factorial analyses of self-reports revealed a main effect of the experience (F(1, 36) = 13.787), p < .001) but no main effect of priming and no interaction effect. The same analysis was performed for duration perception and skin response conductance mean, no significant effects were observed. Analysis of heart-rate variability is underway.

Conclusion: Self-report findings are in line with current literature and suggest that awe can effectively be designed into VR content using known elicitors, but priming does not affect the emotional appraisal of experiences. Reliability checks for the questionnaire indicate that language proficiency might affect affordance or understanding of language-specific emotional concepts. Taken altogether, the findings highlight the need for a more holistic approach to capture and measure awe, possibly using more objective measures such as piloerection or more qualitative measures.

ABSTRACT. For this presentation we propose a systematic meta-analytical review in accordance with PRISMA recommendations about the digital psychological assessment. Research on digital psychological tests has mainly focused on self-administered or group-administered tests, which takes us far away from our questioning of individual psychological assessment. Some recent research has focused on the WISC-V child and WAIS-IV adolescent and adult intellectual efficiency tests that have had a digital version now through Pearson's Q-Interactive platform since 2014. For this Pearson clinical offering, the digital administration is intended to be conducted in a face-to-face setting, with the test being administered using two iPad tablets: one is intended to show the stimuli to the patients and the other displays the instructions, scoring criteria and timer for the clinician. In contrast, the cubes remain manipulable and code, symbols and barrage are offered in a paper-and-pencil format because even though the digital option exists, equivalence studies show clear processing differences for digital and paper versions of the Processing Speed Index subtests (DiMiceli, J. M. 2020). When digital tests are adaptations of paper tests, as is the case for most tests on Q-Interactive, publishers are required to show whether the norms and other psychometric qualities are applicable to the digital versions. According to Daniel, M., & Wahlstrom, D. (2019) equivalence is important because it ensures the meaning of test results. Carefully developed standards are also an important investment to preserve. Equivalence has two facets: construct equivalence, i.e. measuring the same thing, and raw score equivalence. The authors explain that digital versions of a test can have construct equivalence by adapting the presentation of the stimuli to take advantage of the potential of digital technology, but in order to achieve raw score equivalence the adaptation must be as faithful as possible to the traditional version to avoid too great a discrepancy that would deprive the digital version of the standards validated by a sample based on traditional administration. Daniel, M., & Wahlstrom, D. (2019) point out that clinicians need to be aware that differences exist between the digital and paper versions of the WISC-V and that there can be no absolute equivalence. The solution might be to create digital tests directly and calibrate them so as not to just transpose the paper format to digital but to design tools that take advantage of the specific characteristics of digital in their construction. After a review of the initial literature, we found that most of the work focuses on the use of the digital version of the Wechsler scales in a quest to verify the equivalence of the different modes of administration. The classic approach to evaluation in this context consists of seeking equivalence of construction but also, more often than not, equivalence of raw scores in order to benefit from the metric qualities of the original tests and their calibration. To take advantage of the novel situation of immersion offered by digital tools in order to explore new aspects of the subjects' psychological reality. The digital psychological assessment, without claiming to replace traditional methods, deserves to be studied in order to highlight more precisely its limits but also its potential richness according to the specific clinical situations where it is deployed.

ABSTRACT. Flow state is a state of intense focus and engagement, which is fulfilling for people experiencing it and therefore sought-after by creators of virtual games and experiences. As theorized by Csíkszentmihályi, flow can be subdivided into nine components: merging of actions and awareness, clear goals, concentration on the task at hand, unambiguous feedback, challenge-skill balance, transformation of time, sense of control, loss of self-consciousness, and autotelic experience. Virtual Reality (VR) is known to be one of the most immersive technologies available today. As such, it has great potential to foster flow state in its users. This work tries to determine which design characteristics favor flow the most in VR, with respect to providing guidance to the user. In particular, this research examines whether text hints or glowing cues are more effective to foster feelings of flow in a VR escape room. The intensity of flow state has been evaluated through the Activity Flow State Scale (AFSS) designed by Payne et al., and qualitative data has also been gathered, from direct observation and user comments. AFSS score, duration of the VR experience, and duration estimated by the participants, have been compared between the version of the VR escape room which presents hints as text prompts and the one in which relevant objects glow. This data has then been connected to findings resulting from the thematic analysis of direct observation and user comments. The results did not provide a clear indication that either of the hint versions distinctly produced more flow, but rather that they both acted in different ways on separate flow components. In particular, the component "clear goals" had a higher average score for the version of the escape room with text hints. The qualitative data also gave rise to several insights into the complexities of designing Virtual Reality experiences to foster flow.

ABSTRACT. With the COVID-19 pandemic, universities have turned to a variety of technology platforms to facilitate online synchronous learning, including video conferencing (VC) platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. These platforms are easy to use, with features like screen sharing and video calls that help facilitate interaction and participation. However, this experience is limited. The lack of physical presence and the restricted opportunities for interaction make it more difficult for students to build social connections with their teachers and classmates, as they may not feel as connected as they would in an in-person class. This issue is known as the "social presence gap”. Social presence refers to the extent to which people feel that they are interacting with real people in an online or virtual environment, and it has been shown to promote students’ engagement, motivation, and knowledge retention in online learning. In this respect, Virtual reality (VR) social platforms like Spatial, MeetinVR, and Engage VR may offer advantages over traditional platforms by creating a more engaging and interactive environment, fostering proximity and connection among students, and leading to improved learning outcomes. Research on the use of VR social platforms for online learning is in its early stages, and studies are needed to explore its effectiveness in promoting students’ learning experience compared to more traditional solutions, such as VC platforms. This ongoing exploratory study aims to examine the impact of VR social platforms on students' learning experiences and to gain insight into students' perspectives on using VR for online learning using a mixed-methods design. For this purpose, we invited participants to attend two lectures, each delivered on a VC platform (Microsoft Teams) or a VR social platform (Spatial), both in a desktop-based format. Half of the participants attended the first lecture on the VC platform and the second on the VR social platform, while the other half had the opposite schedule. For each group, the two lessons were scheduled at the same time for two consecutive days. The same teacher conducted the two lessons using the same slide-based materials. After each lesson, a survey was administered to assess students' social presence, emotional experience and perceived ease of use of the two platforms. After completing both lectures, participants were invited to join an unstructured in-depth interview to share their experiences using the two platforms. Preliminary results (n=14) revealed no significant difference in social presence between the two platforms, but the VR social platform elicited more positive emotions (enjoyment, awe, and interest) and less boredom than the VC platform. The unstructured in-depth interview helped us gain insights into the quantitative data by indicating that most students found the VR social platform more interesting and engaging than the VC platform. Still, they preferred the VC platform for learning as they found they were more familiar with it and found it easier to use. VR social platforms represent a future area of application of online education, offering new opportunities for more interactive and engaging learning. Therefore, expanding our understanding of how these platforms may facilitate teacher-student and peer-to-peer social relations and promote learning outcomes is crucial. Further research is needed to validate these findings and to further explore the impact of VR social platforms on learning outcomes.

ABSTRACT. Introduction. The advent of the Internet has led to the growth of e-commerce; this also increases the triggers for Compulsive Online Shopping (COS) for vulnerable individuals. COS was conceptualized as a form of behavioral addiction, and it refers to a problematic condition characterized by excessive concern about shopping, with a compulsive and uncontrollable need to buy that persists despite the negative consequences, damaging important areas of the subject's life. The literature concerning predictors of compulsive shopping had enlightened some risk factors, including boredom proneness, impulsivity, materialism and negative affect. More recently, the metacognitive model of addictive behaviors (Spada et al., 2015) posits that there are two types of metacognitions particularly salient in addictive behaviors: (i) positive metacognitions (i. e. the beneficial effects of engaging in addictive behavior to regulate cognition and affect) and (ii) negative metacognitions (i. e. the perception of the lack of executive control over engagement in the addictive behavior, uncontrollability of thoughts related to the addictive behavior and the negative impact of the engagement in the addictive behavior on cognitive functioning). A growing body of research have enlightened the role of positive and negative metacognitions as mediators between unpleasant cognitive/emotional states and behavioral addictions, including technological addictions, but no previous study has investigated the role of positive and negative metacognitions in COS. The current study aims to clarify the contribution of metacognitions concerning COS in the relationship between well-established predisposing psychological factors and COS. We tested a model where boredom proneness, impulsivity, materialism, and negative affect predict metacognitions about online shopping, which in turn predict COS. Method. A sample of 254 Italian participants (mean age = 34.79±11.45; age range = 19-75, Females = 84.3%) was recruited using a convenience sampling approach. A web link directed the participants to the study website, and if they consented to participate, they provided demographic information and online shopping habits, and compiled a battery of self-reports. No remunerative rewards were given. The following self-report measures were administered: The Boredom Proneness Scale–Short Form, the Barratt Impulsivity Scale, the Material Values Scale, the negative affect scale of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, the Metacognitions about Online Shopping Questionnaire, and the COS Scale. The proposed model was tested through path analysis. Results. The path analysis showed that the hypothesized model produced a good fit to the data [χ2 = 8.013, df = 6, p =.02; RMSEA [90%CI] =.04[.00-.09]; CFI = .99; SRMR =.04] and accounted for 48% of COS variance. All the predictors (i.e., boredom proneness, impulsivity, materialism and negative affect) were significantly and positively associated with positive metacognitions about emotional and cognitive regulation, which in turn positively predicted COS. Boredom proneness and impulsivity were positively associated with negative metacognitions about uncontrollability and cognitive harm of online shopping, which in turn predicted COS. All the indirect effects were significant. Additionally, boredom proneness predicted COS also directly. Discussion. The present findings add to the argument that metacognitive theory should be applied to the understanding of COS, akin to what has been done for other addictive behaviors. Individuals with high boredom proneness, impulsivity, materialism and negative affect might engage in COS since they hold specific beliefs about the ability of this activity in regulating unwanted thought and negative affects (i.e., positive metacognitions about emotional and cognitive regulation). Additionally, negative metacognitions about uncontrollability and cognitive harm may promote the perpetuation of COS. Providing intervention to distressed and boredom proneness people might be important not only for directly targeting these symptoms but also indirectly to prevent COS. Moreover, developing interventions aimed at the modification of the specific beliefs and metacognitions that lead to COS might be valuable.

ABSTRACT. Background:

Digital self-harm (DSH) is a form of self-injury where individuals will intentionally make hurtful comments about oneself through online social networks. Digital self-harm can also be conceptualized as self-cyberbullying. Although extensive literature exists on cyberbullying and cyberaggression, limited research exists on digital self-harm, specifically as DSH relates to traditional forms of self-harm, such as non-suicidal self-injury.

NSSI refers to the intentional injuring of oneself without intention to die. Traditional forms of self-harm include intentionally cutting parts of the body such as one’s arms or wrists without suicidal intention. Research shows that there are several risk factors for NSSI, one of which includes borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) consists of volatile mood, self-image, and impulsivity and comprises of six neuroticism facets (high anxiousness, high depressiveness, high angry hostility, high impulsiveness, high vulnerability, and high self-consciousness), one openness to experience facet (high fantasy), and three agreeableness facets (low compliance, low trust, and low straightforwardness), and one conscientiousness facet (low deliberation).

The current study examined whether emotionally unstable personality traits and NSSI predicted digital self-harm.

Method

Freshman undergraduate students were virtually recruited from a large midwestern university (USA) during the Spring 2020 semester when residential campus closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A PowerPoint slide was created with a hyperlink and a QR code, which was shared with professors teaching introductory-level courses (virtually) across a variety of disciplines. Participants were required to be at least 18 years of age and currently enrolled as a freshman. The anonymous internet-based survey hosted by Qualtrics included the short form of the Five-Factor Borderline Inventory and adaptations of the Functional Assessment of Self-Mutilation and the Cyberbullying Deviancy Scale.

Participants self-reported their number of NSSI and DSH behaviors in the past 12 months. 112 freshmen (59 males, 51 females, 2 non-binary) completed the survey; 61 (54%) participants self-reported engaging in at least one form of NSSI. The average number of NSSI behaviors engaged in was 2.84 (SD = 1.87). In total, 17 (15%) participants self-reported engaging in at least one type of DSH. The average number of DSH behaviors engaged in was 2.24 (SD: 1.25). Females were more likely to engage in both NSSI and DSH compared to males (p = .06, φ = .30).

Results

Results indicated a statistically significant positive correlation between individuals who engaged in more types of NSSI and individuals who engage in more types of DSH, r(112) = .35, p < .001, 95% CIs [1.17, 1.92] and [.16, .51], respectively.

For DSH, individuals who engaged in more types of DSH scored significantly higher on Dysregulated Anger, Despondence, Behavioral Dysregulation, Affective Dysregulation, Fragility, Dissociative Tendencies, Manipulativeness, Oppositional, and Rashness. In comparison, individuals who engaged in more types of NSSI scored significantly higher on Anxious Uncertainty, Despondence, Self-Disturbance, Affective Dysregulation, Fragility, Dissociative Tendencies, Manipulativeness, and Oppositional.

Conclusion

The main goal of this research was to offer new insights on digital self-harm and its relationship to non-suicidal self-injury and BPD traits. 15% of individuals engaged in some form of DSH, which was higher than previous studies of DSH. There was a significant positive correlation NSSI and DSH. The current study did not find that all BPD personality traits correlated with individuals who engaged in DSH, but the personality facets were similar among DSH and NSSI. However, other mental disorders, which are comorbid with NSSI, were not assessed in the current study. Despite these limitations, we argue that the strong effect sizes support the findings of a significant relationship between NSSI, DSH, and emotionally unstable personality traits. Future considerations should include DSH behavior for a more holistic approach when assessing self-harm.

ABSTRACT. Our study is based on a research program that began in January 2021 until the end of January 2023. This research was conducted in France with the support of the Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l'Autonomie (CNSA) and in collaboration with several caregiver associations, in a participatory research dynamic. The experiences of family caregivers are explored in the scientific literature, as well as their potential vulnerability to physical, psychological, and socioeconomic problems. Our objectives are: - To establish an inventory of the issues that constitute the experience of helping people with assisted living needs in France at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. - To provide an interdisciplinary analysis of this phenomenon and a multifactorial understanding of the obstacles that the pandemic has posed to the performance of certain tasks, the solutions that have been developed, and their impact on the lives of the individuals concerned. Each of these two analytical axes integrate the uses of technological tools for remote communication. Hence, we asked ourselves in what ways was the context of the COVID-19 pandemic health crisis shaping helping practices and relationships within the broader field of e-health?- In this context, we assume that the Covid 19 pandemic has led to significant changes in the practices of family caregivers. We also assume that our investigation will identify and characterize the behaviors related to the use of digital and e-health technologies by family caregivers. The population of our study includes adult family caregivers, living in France in rural or urban areas. Our sample is composed of 3 subgroups: - Caregivers of an adult with a physical disability - Family caregivers of an adult with a mental disability - Family caregivers of a senior citizen We chose a cross-sectional research methodology, which includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. We created an online questionnaire and we conducted interviews with family caregivers. Ethically, all participants had to validate the Terms of Use of the digital platform, which we wrote in accordance with the GDPR. All participants also had to validate an online informed consent form, before they could access the questionnaire. The questionnaire has 70 items and several sections, which are composed of several sets of questions: A "pre-questionnaire," aimed at assessing the eligibility of respondents A section to assess the socio-economic status of participants A section to assess participants' helping practices A section to assess the physical and psychological health of the participants A section to assess the use of digital tools by participants. We created a database, derived from several recent surveys in the literature. We then compared the results of those who participated in the "COVID-Caregivers" survey with the results of the database from the literature. We conducted a descriptive analysis of the comparative results. We worked on a correlation of the results of our participants, in order to identify multidimensional indices of frailty. In particular, we studied the use of digital tools and their evolution among the participants. We used the method of thematic discourse analysis. To do this, we created a thematic analysis grid for the interviews. This grid was filled out "by hand" by the members of the research team who had conducted the interviews, as well as by another member of the research team (external evaluator). We also used the Nvivo software for an automated thematic analysis of the verbatim. We are currently finishing the data analysis and we will present results from 65 questionnaires and 10 semi-structured interviews with family caregivers, about their psychological health and digital practices during and since COVID-19 pandemics.

ABSTRACT. ‘Can the digital future be our home?’. Starting from this question recently formulated by Zuboff (2019), a question that opens up new possible forms of coexistence between physical, digital and human, the presentation aims to explore the issues related to the spread of phygital environments (i.e., an environment characterized by context awareness⎯capturing human beings while they populate the space⎯, embeddedness⎯automating processes and reducing human beings’ mediation⎯, and natural interaction⎯transforming human−machine interaction in a natural and multimodal process⎯; Gaggioli, 2017; Leoni et al., 2021) in work contexts, with particular reference to the organization of hybrid meetings. As is well known, the diffusion of phygital environments has increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic to the point of being a real silent revolution in times of ‘new/post/next normality’. This ‘revolution’ has generated new forms of both communication and relationship between people and the organization of work processes. The presentation will open with a description of the main consequences of hybridization of the physical and digital dimensions of workspaces and environments. Taking on the viewpoints of planning and design, organizational consulting, executive action, positive psychology and social psychology of digital spaces, it will show how the concept of the phygital spaces contains within itself the distinguishing elements of this situation. The contribution will then proceed to analyze the phenomenon of hybrid meetings as a paradigmatic example of the critical issues organizations face in integrating this into their culture and operating processes. To this end, what is meant by ‘hybrid meetings’ will be clarified, differentiating them from what could be called ‘spurious meetings’ (such as ‘in-person meetings + someone at a distance’ or ‘online meetings + the boss in the office’). Hybrid meetings are characterized not so much by being meetings in which some participants are physically present in the same room, while others join remotely via video conferencing technology, but because those who must be present are present and those who must be remote are remote, meetings therefore at the basis of which there is a sound organizational design. Some additional reasons that constitute the specificity of hybrid meetings are the ones that point out that these meetings are based, above all, on:

(a) reasons why they are planned and convened (b) ways in which they are organized (c) organization of the setting that hosts the individuals present within the office (proxemics⎯meaning attributed to the distance that human beings take up to one another and artefacts in the environment⎯[Norris, 2019], sound quality, air quality etc.) (d) degree of social presence experienced by participants (e) presence and use of collaborative digital tools (e) training of participants in the use of technology and collaborative digital tools (f) training in social and conversational etiquette (g) integration of meeting outcomes into teamwork processes.

The presentation will address each of the above points to highlight how hybrid meetings can: 1) represent a moment of integration between technologies, psychological processes and social-work processes in light of the principles of positive psychology applied to the world of work 2) provide useful insights into structuring hybrid work contexts to facilitate participation and productivity 3) to be a training opportunity to sensitize hybrid work groups to the major relational dynamics that characterize their collaboration in phygital environments.

To substantiate the above program, reference will be made to a case study related to the organizational consulting intervention ‘Supporting Technologies and new Skills for Managing Digitally Augmented Contexts’ currently underway at MM SpA (Milan, Italy).

ABSTRACT. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of the use of biomarkers and biofeedback to broaden the scope of clinical VR applications. Over the last 25 years, the focus has shifted from (a) using biosignals as a guide for psychotherapists during exposure for phobias and review sessions with patients after the immersion (e.g., Wiederhold, 1999), to (b) using stimuli in the virtual environment to display biofeedback during the treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., variations in stress being displayed by changes in the intensity of a campfire or a waterfall, Repetto et al., 2011), to (c) more diversified clinical populations such as schizophrenia, autism or migraine, and (d) using biomarkers data to automatically individualize user’s experience and automatize treatment. The availability of artificial intelligence (Machine Learning) tools to analyze large dataset led to hope of modeling arousal during psychotherapies to adjust in virtual stimuli in real time to improve therapeutic interactions with virtual stimuli, optimize treatment and implement AI-based virtual therapists.

Our discussant is Brenda Wiederhold, a pioneer of the use of biofeedback in VR.

ABSTRACT. The goal of this first presentation of the symposium “New trends in virtual reality and the use of biomarkers and biofeedback in mental health” is to provide basic knowledge enabling subsequent presenters to focus on their innovations and results. First, typical biomarkers of physiological arousal will be introduced, such as heart rate (e.g., frequency, variability) and skin conductance, as well as those adapted to VR more recently (e.g., eye-tracking, EEG). Biofeedback will be defined as essentially displaying in real time information about a person’s physiology to allow him or her practicing emotion regulation or other skills that impact physiological responses.

Biofeedback has been used in virtual reality applications for decades, but how it is used and for which goal did change significantly. In early studies, biofeedback information was displayed to the therapist on a computer monitor while the user was immersed in VR. The session was then reviewed with the patient after immersion, or therapist would comment on the physiological response but the patient could not see the feedback. Later on, the visual display was integrated into the virtual environment itself and biofeedback could be experienced by the user during the immersion. A review of the literature revealed slightly more than a dozen distinct clinical studies focusing on stress, anxiety and pain reduction. A summary of these studies will be presented and reveal the advantage of combining biofeedback with VR was not always superior to biofeedback alone in terms of stress management. But using VR may be advantageous in terms of motivation and users’ experience. This evolution in the technology led to the development of several commercial applications for stress management that are now available to the general public.

However, biomarkers and biofeedback can be used for much more that was has been traditionally done. As an example of the newer applications of biofeedback in VR, the presentation will briefly illustrate how it is being used in our research team to significantly adapt cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to Inuit culture. Many core features of CBT or other forms of evidence-based psychotherapy do not fit well with Indigenous populations and other cultures. Using virtual reality and biofeedback allows focusing attention away from introspection in “talk therapies” and toward action, holistic integration of body/mind/environment and building resilience. The presentation will highlight the specific adaptations required for this culture.

ABSTRACT. Background Stress is a well-established factor in the course burnout and psychiatric disorders. Relaxation can be effective for reducing stress and psychiatric symptoms and improving daily life functioning. However, relaxation exercises require more mental effort then many patients can generate. Therefore, a relaxing tool that uses virtual reality (VR) called VRelax was developed. VR relaxation has strong immersive properties and requires less mental effort. VRelax seems to create immediate improvements in affective states among patients with a psychiatric disorder and in working populations1,2. However, the effect of VR relaxation on physiological stress, especially in daily life, has not yet been investigated. These results are foundational to implement biofeedback into VR relaxation and to explore the option of using bio-cueing.

Aim The first aim was to investigate the effectiveness of adding VRelax to treatment as usual compared to using standard relaxation exercises on perceived stress. The second aim was to investigate the effect of VRelax compared to standard relaxation exercises on 1) on physiological stress markers in a laboratory setting and 2) in daily life as measured with wearables.

Method A multicentre single-blind randomized controlled trial was conducted in patients receiving ambulatory treatment for burnout, anxiety, depressive, bipolar or psychotic disorder. Participants were randomly assigned to either VRelax or standard relaxation exercises and instructed to use either VRelax or standard relaxation exercises for at least 20 minutes, minimally five days a week, for six weeks at home. Assessments were performed at baseline, 6-week follow-up, 26-week follow-up and 52-week follow-up. Socio-demographic variables, perceived stress using the perceived stress scale (PSS) and physiological stress measures (laboratory and ambulatory) were collected. Laboratory measurements of stress-physiology were performed at baseline and at 6-week follow-up. ECG and GSR data was collected while participants used VRelax for 10-minutes. Ambulatory measurements were performed in both groups during the first and last week of the intervention period. During this period, participants wore the Empatica E4 during the day to record validated HRV parameters during one week (i.e., HR, RMSSD, SDNN).

Results Inclusion is ongoing, currently 29 participants have been included and randomly assigned, 15 to the VRelax group and 14 to the standard relaxation exercises group. The majority were women (24 of 29, 83%) and on average the age was 44.9 (SD = 14.29). Preliminary results show a mean score on the PSS was 20.2 (SD = 3.30) at T0 and 19.4 (SD = 3.88) at T1 in the VRelax group. Mean score on the PSS was 20.9 (SD = 3.90) at T0 and 17.9 (SD = 4.48) at T1 for the standard relaxation exercises group. We expect to include 75 patients before July and the planned total number of participants of this study will be 171. More data on perceived and physiological stress will be presented in July 2023.

Conclusion This study focuses on the effect of VRelax on perceived stress and physiological stress markers (laboratory and ambulatory). At this point it is too early to draw conclusion, but the data will show whether VRelax can be an efficient self-management tool for patients with burnout and psychiatric disorder. In addition, the results of this study form the foundation for further exploration of biofeedback and bio-cueing options in VR relaxation.

References 1.Nijland, J. M., Veling, W., Lestestuiver, B. P., & Van Driel, C. M. (2021). Virtual reality relaxation for reducing perceived stress of intensive care nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 706527. 2.Veling, W., Lestestuiver, B., Jongma, M., Hoenders, H. R., & van Driel, C. (2021). Virtual Reality Relaxation for Patients With a Psychiatric Disorder: Crossover Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(1), e17233.

ABSTRACT. As the research field is establishing that VR is an effective way of conducting exposure therapy, naturally we have become interested in investigating the optimal means of delivering VR-exposure. By using biomarkers to monitor anxiety levels, the clinician can increase the likelihood that exposure sessions elicit the intended levels of anxiety, without disturbing the participant by prompting for verbal feedback and thereby interfering with the immersive experience inherent to VR. Predicting the subjective experience of anxiety in real time during exposure in VR, using biomarkers, may help the clinician adapt the exposure session to the individual, ensuring a safe and effective exposure possibly leading to better treatment results.

A preliminary study was conducted to gather data on heart rate (HR), galvanic skin response (GSR) and subjective units of distress (SUDS) in order to test three different predictive models. Twenty participants were recruited; 10 participants with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and 10 control participants. To gauge the individual participants’ baseline HR and GSR, all participants were exposed to a 5 min neutral VR-scenario. Participants were then successively exposed to four exposure-scenarios: “Encounter on bench”, “New employee”, “Shopping” and “Presentation”, each lasting 8-10 minutes. Participants were prompted for a SUDS score every 2 minutes. Total amount of data points were 204.

We applied three different machine-learning methods to the dataset: linear regression, backpropagation, and NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies (NEAT). Where appropriate, we divided our dataset in training and testing datasets using an 80/20 split. Linear regression was chosen to provide a baseline and an understandable model of anxiety. To compare, we applied the classical artificial neural network (ANN) backpropagation algorithm to see if an ANN would perform better, given its ability to represent non-linear relationships. Finally, because ANN topology has a large impact on how well a model can be learned, we applied NEAT, an evolutionary algorithm that trains ANNs by both changing the network topology and its weights. As for the collected data, we considered three cases: i) raw data (HR and GSR peak frequency), ii) normalized data (baseline ± SD), iii) scaled data based on baseline (e.g. HR - mean baseline HR). As outputs of the models we considered two options: a) Estimated SUDS (Range between 0-100), and b) Brackets of SUDS: low (0-33), medium (34-66) and high (67-100).

The precision ranges between 56% and 68% for the linear regression method (based on a test set not used in training). The backpropagation setups give disappointing precision around 50%.The best two models were found with NEAT using raw data (i). For estimated SUDS we obtain a precision of 78% (a), while for the low, medium high brackets we obtain 73% precision (b). The other configurations for NEAT yield approximately 63% precision. An investigation of the structure of the best models shows that these seem to ignore GSR signals, focusing on HR as the predictor of anxiety.

The main limitation of our results is the unbalanced collected dataset due to a low amount of values in the high SUDS range. Thus, our models had fewer options to learn relationships between biomarker signals in the high anxiety range, and may have difficulties differentiating between medium/high anxiety states.

The model found with NEAT using raw data and an anxiety output level using the three brackets (low, medium and high) is being implemented in a RCT study investigating the effect of adaptive virtual reality exposure for SAD. We hope the combination of adaptive virtual reality and the ability to predict subjective experience of anxiety in real time during exposure, will add to the collected knowledge on the optimal means of delivering exposure therapy.

ABSTRACT. To assess and characterize the different facets of human cognition is a complex challenge with numerous applications. Current assessment tools have limited facility for making ecologically valid predictions; they are based on explicit measures, such as self-report questionnaires, interviews, and projective measures. Effects such as social desirability, data interpretation, and subject knowledge can negatively affect the reliability and validity of these techniques. One of the challenges to be faced in the development of a performance-based methodology to measure cognitive cognition is how to generate real-life situations with triggers that allow us to study the different cognitive dimensions under controlled laboratory conditions. A way to address this question is to take advantage of Extended Reality (XR) to recreate real-life situations that might arise in performance-based assessments. More concretely, it is possible to obtain biomarkers for human cognition classification using a computational psychology paradigm based on implicit brain processes measured through psychophysiological signals and behavior of subjects while exposed to complex social conditions replicas using virtual reality interfaces. This lead to a new conceptualization of biomarkers that we have named XR-based Behavioral Biomarkers or XRBB. In this talk, we introduce the concept of XRBB and present several examples of how XRBB can be used for human cognition assessment. We describe different research projects' results and we conclude with a discussion of potential future implications.

ABSTRACT. This symposium presents Augmented Introspection, a new approach in cyberpsychology aimed at enhancing/empowering human introspection – i.e., the ability to reflect on and explore one's own inner experiences and subjective states of mind - by combining it with artificial intelligence, advanced simulation technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, and psychophysiological techniques such as biofeedback and neurofeedback.

The goal of Augmented Introspection is to design technologies and interactive digital experiences that improve people's ability to access, represent, and potentially alter their own internal psychological processes, judgments, perceptions, and states through self-reflection and insight. This approach aims to enhance self-awareness, self-transcendence, and decision-making, with potential applications in the fields of mental health, education and training, and everyday life.

The symposium is expected to provide an overview of the current state of the art in Augmented Introspection, as well as to identify challenges and opportunities for the future development of this new area.

Oral presentations

1. Using Augmented Introspection for supporting emotion regulation with teenagers Alexandra Kitson School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

2. Interoceptive Technology Daniele di Lernia and Giuseppe Riva HTLab, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

3.Promoting Global, Perceptual and Self-Consciousness: The Contribution of Information Technologies Oscar F. Goncalves Proaction Lab - CINEICC, University of Coimbra, Portugal

4.Exploring the Effects of Virtual Reality Induced Alterations in State of Consciousness on cognitive flexibility, creativity and perceptual experiences Nicola de Pisapia Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento, Italy

5.'Numadelic' VR experiences which produce ego attenuation and connectedness comparable to psychedelics David Glowacki – Intangible Reality Lab, Spain

ABSTRACT. In this contribution, I will introduce Augmented Introspection, a new approach in cyberpsychology that aims to enhance human introspection by using artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, and psychophysiological techniques. The goal is to create technologies and digital experiences that improve people's ability to access, understand, and potentially change their own internal psychological processes, judgments, perceptions, and memories through self-reflection and insight. This strategy aims to enhance self-awareness, self-transcendence, and decision-making with potential applications in mental health, education, and everyday life.

In my talk, I will first attempt a definition of Augmented Introspection, as a technology-enhanced process that allows for real-time monitoring and analysis of mental states and processes. I will explain how Augmented Introspection can be particularly useful for individuals struggling with mental health issues, as it allows for more targeted and effective treatment. For example, by detecting patterns of negative thoughts or emotions using experience-sampling methods, therapists may intervene to help individuals develop more positive coping mechanisms. In addition to its potential applications in mental health, Augmented Introspection could also be used to improve decision-making and communication.

In the main part of my presentation, I will review examples of interactive tools designed to promote self-reflection experiences, drawing on recent research from our own group and relevant literature. From this review, I will then explore the opportunities and challenges of this Augmented Introspection. Despite its potential, there are several ethical considerations that must be considered. For example, there are concerns about privacy and the potential for misuse of this technology. Additionally, there is a risk that Augmented Introspection may perpetuate existing biases or harmful stereotypes.

In the final part of my talk, I will propose a potential research agenda for Augmented Introspection and explore ways to establish an interdisciplinary network of interested scholars.

ABSTRACT. Introspection, the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes, can give us privileged access to our mental states so that we can better understand ourselves in order to shape our beliefs and make more informed decisions, ultimately improving mental well-being. While it has been well theorized psychologically and several techniques exist, there are still challenges to introspection that can cloud our self-perceptions and many find it difficult to honestly examine their own thoughts and feelings. In our research, we have begun to explore the design space of using neurofeedback-augmented virtual reality to create technologically-mediated supports for introspection. Findings from interviews with lucid dreaming experts enabled us to understand the phenomenological experience of introspection that occurs during dreaming. For these lucid dreamers, it was a space and lens to explore one’s thoughts and feelings and uncover secret knowledge, a connection to self, and a way of communicating with the self. We used these findings to guide the design and development of a neurofeedback-augmented virtual reality experience. This experience consisted of an AI-enhanced 360 visual and spatialized audio that both creatively and dynamically changed with a user’s brain waves. Taking from the practice of introspection in the context of lucid dreaming, we asked users to play with their attention and notice how the virtual environment changed. We used a mixed methods convergent parallel approach. We used the Dream and Lucid Dream Frequency Questionnaire to screen for participants (N=9) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale to determine participants’ general tendency towards focused attention. Using a cued-recall debrief method, we conducted semi-structured interviews while participants viewed a first-person recording of their session with our system. We used thematic analysis to generate three themes highlighting participants’ experiences of our system: relating to real-life experiences, discovering the boundaries of the system, and being there with virtual objects and people.

We extend an existing publication with the system Lucid Loop by reporting on the results relating to the introspective qualities experienced by participants. First, the narrative elements of the virtual experience (e.g., the moving, costumed characters and the setting of the path in the woods) were not part of a plot or narrative arch nor were they interactive. Participants could not speak with the characters or navigate the environment, but these elements still allowed for a level of cognitive interactivity with the system in which participants can have an emotional or psychological response even without being able to change those aspects of the experience. The level of artistic abstraction that was created by our AI-enhanced system, rather than unprocessed 360 video footage, also enabled participants to project familiar people or places onto the experience for their own meaning making. Second, participants wanted more control and interactions with the environment, similar to what they would expect in an actual lucid dream. Neurofeedback is one form of control in this experience, although it is not about control per se. Participants can use their focus to ‘’control’’ the visuals and audio in the immersive environment, yet this is not how we designed the mapping. Participants noticed this tendency toward wanting to control the system and then realized that it was better to simply let go and ‘’just observe those thoughts’’. Finally, the immersive quality of the virtual headset itself was a critical component in creating a heightened awareness of self. This perhaps allowed for deeper introspection because the headset blocks out the external environment and amplifies the virtual experience. Taken together, our research contributes a technologically-mediated support for introspection and highlights potential future directions in the emerging field of augmented introspection.

ABSTRACT. In contemporary times, quality of life and well-being are constantly threatened by increasing levels of stress, together with dysregulation of mood, cognition, and behavior, which create a global health emergency in need of immediate attention. To address this, a new approach in cyberpsychology, known as Augmented Introspection (AIT), has emerged, aimed at enhancing/empowering human introspection - i.e., the ability to reflect on and explore one's own inner experiences and subjective states of mind. Traditionally, the field of neuroscience and psychology has focused on understanding how external stimuli, such as sight and sound, influence our behavior, cognition, and overall health. However, this approach neglects a vital aspect of human experience: the sense of our body from within, known as interoception. Interoception is the ability to perceive and interpret internal bodily sensations, such as heart rate, respiration, and hunger, and plays a crucial role in our overall well-being and health. The goal of Augmented Introspection is to design technologies and interactive digital experiences that improve people's ability to access, represent, and potentially alter their own internal psychological processes, judgments, perceptions, and states through self-reflection and insight. This approach aims to enhance self-awareness, self-transcendence, and decision-making, with potential applications in the fields of mental health, education and training, and everyday life. From this perspective, the interoceptive system represents a core component and a gateway to our health, therefore the development of scientifically-grounded technology, capable of accessing and manipulating this system would be a breakthrough, with unprecedented potential to promote human health and wellbeing. However, a major limitation of research has been the difficulty of developing technologies able to access and modulate the interoceptive system, in order to promote health and enhance well-being. Current attempts have either used invasive means such as: direct brain stimulation (Dimov, Toniolo et al. 2017); transcranial deep magnetic stimulation (Dinur-Klein, Dannon et al. 2014, Malik, Jacobs et al. 2018); and transcranial direct current stimulation (Sagliano, Magliacano et al. 2018); or require complex, fixed lab setups, without ecological applicability (Crucianelli, Metcalf et al. 2013, Ackerley, Backlund Wasling et al. 2014, Ogden, Moore et al. 2015, Ogden, Moore et al. 2015). In this brief overview, we will introduce the concept of interoceptive non-invasive stimulation, namely the stimulation of the interoceptive system with a series of non-invasive inputs that are directly processed by the interoceptive cortex, providing a variety of psychobiological effects. Following this perspective, we recently developed two different technologies namely Sonoception and iStim able to manipulate the interoceptive system, through non-invasive stimulation. This approach is supported by recent literature that “suggests that the accessibility of C-tactile afferent nerve endings and their fibers in mammalian hairy skin […] may provide an externally accessible experimental channel for the manipulation of interoceptive signaling in healthy humans” (Quigley, Kanoski et al. 2021). We will present these technologies, discussing their effectiveness in modulating the interoceptive system and human behavior at both cognitive, behavioral, cortical, and autonomic levels and we will review their application in the realm of Augmented Introspection.

ABSTRACT. With a growing body of research highlighting the therapeutic potential of experiential phenomenology which diminishes egoic identity and increases one’s sense of connectedness, there is significant interest in how to elicit such ‘self-transcendent experiences’ (STEs) in laboratory contexts. Psychedelic drugs (YDs) have proven particularly effective in this respect, producing subjective phenomenology which reliably elicits intense STEs. With virtual reality (VR) emerging as a powerful tool for constructing new perceptual environments, Glowacki et al have begun to explore a so-called 'numadelic' (spirit-manifesting) design paradigm. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-12637-z) Specifically, we recently developed a VR framework called ‘Isness-distributed’ (Isness-D) which harnesses the unique affordances of cloud computing combined with distributed multi-person VR to blur conventional self-other boundaries. Within Isness-D, groups of participants co-habit a shared virtual space, collectively experiencing their bodies as luminous energetic essences with diffuse spatial boundaries. It enables moments of ‘energetic coalescence’, a new class of embodied intersubjective experience where bodies can fluidly merge, enabling participants to include multiple others within their self-representation. To evaluate Isness-D, we adopted a citizen science approach, coordinating an international network of Isness-D 'nodes'. We analyzed the results (N = 58) using 4 different self-report scales previously applied to analyze subjective YD phenomenology (the inclusion of community in self scale, ego-dissolution inventory, communitas scale, and the MEQ30 mystical experience questionnaire). Despite the complexities associated with a distributed experiment like this, the Isness-D scores on all 4 scales were statistically indistinguishable from recently published YD studies, demonstrating that distributed VR can be used to design intersubjective STEs where people dissolve their sense of self in the connection to others.

ABSTRACT. During the last two decades a comprehensive interdisciplinary research program has been successful in the identification of the neural correlates of consciousness. A brain system capable of processing and integrate information seems to be a necessary condition for “global consciousness” (i.e., being conscious at all). However, global consciousness is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for “perceptual consciousness”. Being conscious of “something” requires processing of specific perceptual signals in re-entrant and feedback circuits within and among modular and multi-modular brain regions, that render the information available to the whole organism. Finally, “self-consciousness” requires that the brain is capable of locate information inside the body and within the mind. Information integration, information availability and information location are three important prerequisites for any system to conscious at all, being conscious of something, and being conscious of itself. In this presentation we will discuss how information technologies may contribute to promote global, perceptual and self-consciousness. More specifically we will exemplify how neuromodulation, virtual/augmented reality, and brain-machine interaction systems may increase global, perceptual and self-consciousness by promoting information integration, availability and location.

ABSTRACT. The use of virtual reality as a tool for inducing altered states of consciousness and enhancing human introspection is a rapidly growing area of research with potential applications in several fields. In our studies, we aimed to investigate the effects of virtual reality induced alterations in state of consciousness on cognitive flexibility and creativity. Creativity can be defined as the ability to generate new and valid ideas (where the "validity" changes according to the context in which creativity is expressed). Cognitive flexibility is instead the ability of people to act in a non-automatic way, in contrast to the propensity to follow pre-packaged behavioral patterns, adapting flexibly to what is required moment by moment in the pursuit of goals. In this presentation, we discuss two behavioral studies in which participants were (experiment 1) exposed to virtual reality panoramic videos and their hallucinatory-like counterparts generated by the DeepDream algorithm, as well as (experiment 2) virtual reality cave environments which they could explore and move freely, while performing a number of tests. In experiment 1, the participants were immersed for a few minutes in three-dimensional virtual environments processed with DeepDream, which is an algorithms that transforms an initial image and introduce a sort of algorithmic pareidòlia, that is, creating visual forms with meaning (for example, animals), but starting from random forms (for example, the contour of a cloud). In the resulting image, therefore, a dreamlike aspect is created that reminds a psychedelic experience, in particular in the propensity to see images of animals superimposed on ordinary reality. Immediately after the immersion in this environment, the participants underwent several psychological tests, which measured their creative abilities and their cognitive flexibility abilities. Following comparisons with control conditions, the results clearly showed that, after immersion in psychedelic environments simulated in virtual reality, individuals showed a reduced propensity to follow automatic behaviors, and an increase in creative abilities and dynamics in their decision-making processes. In essence, the immersive experience in an altered virtual reality improved their creative thinking and cognitive flexibility, presumably due to a reorganization in cognitive dynamics that facilitated the exploration of uncommon decision-making strategies and inhibited automated choices. In experiment 2, we found the state of consciousness of the participant was significantly altered in the virtual cave along several dimensions when compared to the experience they had in a virtual open space environment (on the top of a mountain) , as we assessed with the 5-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Rating Scale (5D-ASC). In particular, participants reported higher ratings in Arousal, Intensity, Spirituality and Imagery. The pareidòlia experience was also measured by asking the participants to report any unusual images or patterns that they observed in the virtual reality cave environments. The pareidòlia experience was found to be affected by the virtual reality cave environments, with participants reporting a higher frequency of unusual images and patterns in the virtual reality cave environments compared to the virtual open space environment. In conclusion, these studies explore and provide experimental evidence for the potential of virtual reality as a tool for inducing alterations in the state of consciousness that can enhance cognitive flexibility, creativity, and affect perceptual experience sensitive to states of consciousness, such as pareidòlia. The results of these studies can be used to develop virtual reality-based interventions for enhancing cognitive flexibility, creativity, and altered states of consciousness in various fields, including mental health, education, and training.

ABSTRACT. Currently, we are on the edge of a revolution in the field of human sciences, in which, through the use of digital technologies and computational models, it is possible to manipulate, study, and predict human experiences on a variety of levels: perceptual, cognitive, semiotic, and emotional. In spite of the fact that, anecdotally, it may appear that almost everyone understands the concept of emotion, the scientific definition of this notion is still open for debate. Moreover, extended reality poses a variety of challenges regarding the nature of affect and emotion. It is still unknown how affect and emotions arise in extended and artificial reality (versus induced by real stimuli), their relationship with the concept of presence, their neurophysiological foundation, and how they affect individuals' attitudes, behaviors, and well-being. Nowadays, with the rise of the social side of VR, often referred to as the "Metaverse", new questions about emotions arise. Specifically, the Metaverse may not simply be viewed as an assembly of technologies or a novel medium or as a "virtual twin" of reality. The Metaverse aspires to be more. And, if the Metaverse exists in continuity with the experience of the real, sometimes it replaces it, it integrates with it, it merges with it, it could be useful to adopt novel approach to study this evolving phenomenon or set of phenomena. However, if this is the case, two issues arise. First, to what extent and for what reasons should scientists today focus on the emotional aspects of human experience: Cui prodest? Secondly, what should be the methodology behind this approach.

Maybe an entire specialized field of research fully focusing on these aspects is needed.

Some examples of urgent research questions in this novel field can be: Are emotions elicited in simulated spaces equivalent to those induced in real life or by means of other techniques or media? Or should we start a debate on the exclusive nature of affect and emotions in extended reality? Do these new forms of reality enable scientists to unveil the real nature of emotional and affective processes in an original and meaningful way? Why simulating emotions and affect?

The symposium will fulfill three main goals: 1) To outline and promote the study of emotions and affect elicited in different forms of extended reality, starting from their nature, to unveiling their impact on individuals at the cognitive, behavioral, perceptual level in clinical and general population. 2) To aggregate previously scattered contributions on emotions and affect in any form and domain of extended and artificial reality for the advancement in the study of the facets of human affective experience. 3) To define the boundaries of a potentially new field of research on emotions.

ABSTRACT. Peer exclusion refers to the condition in which an individual feels excluded or rejected by peers or peer groups in the school context. As immediate outcome, it leads to negative mood. Previous literature pointed out that peer exclusion can be operationalized in an experimental design by means of the Cyberball paradigm. Through the Cyberball paradigm the perception of being excluded can be altered, hereby manipulating mood and psychological needs in children and adolescents. However, in recent years, research in educational psychology verified that Virtual Reality (VR) is an effective paradigm to assess the role of school context on children’s outcomes. VR, as 3D paradigm, can work better in order to replicate the reality, achieving a higher ecological validity, amplifying or refining the current findings to understand the mechanisms through which peer exclusion exerts its effect on children and adolescents. Using a virtual environment, children and adolescents can perceive the situation they are experiencing as more realistic and then peer exclusion outcomes would become more realistic as well. Consequently, VR, compared to 2D paradigms, presents a higher ecological validity as it allows for a more realistic situational experience to achieve the same effects of social exclusion in ordinary life. Basing on these evidence, the main focus of this research, a PhD project’s first study ongoing and approved by the University of Bologna’s Ethical Committee, is the comparison among a 2D and a 3D paradigm. As both paradigms showed effectiveness within educational contexts but only Cyberball assessed peer exclusion in school context with children and adolescents, the main aim of this PhD project’s first study is to compare peer exclusion effects in children and adolescents after the experience of being excluded by means of the Cyberball paradigm and an experimental peer exclusion situation built by means of VR. Therefore, we aim to find the most effective paradigm, either Cyberball and VR, assessing peer exclusion. We aim to recruit a sample including at least 150 children and adolescents aged 8-16 and bring them to the lab. Once in the lab, children and adolescents will experience two peer exclusion situations by means of the two different experimental paradigms (Cyberball and VR). The two paradigms will be administered randomly and counterbalanced to all participants. Specific self-report measures will be administered before and after every exclusion condition, in order to assess the variation of participants’ mood and psychological needs. We expect to find after both the experimental situations a negative outcome regarding participants’ mood and need satisfaction, as indispensable condition assessing the effectiveness of both the peer exclusion paradigms used. As previous studies using VR showed a big impact of VR experience in school context due to higher ecological validity compared to 2D paradigms, we expect that a VR version of the peer exclusion paradigm will be more effective than the classic 2D version (i.e., displayed on a computer screen), showing a bigger impact on children and adolescents’ exclusion perception, mood and psychological needs. We also hypothesize to find differences regarding gender and age, expecting to find stronger effects on females and adolescents aged 13-16. Moreover, we expect to find moderation effects provided by social support and previous rejection experiences, measured by means of specific self-report measures filled before the beginning of the study, showing that higher support provided by parents, teachers and friends, and lower levels of previous rejection experiences can act as buffer against peer exclusion outcomes. As the main goal of this first study is to find the most powerful paradigm assessing peer exclusion, this one will be used to manipulate peer exclusion in the following studies of the PhD project mentioned before.

ABSTRACT. The COVID-19 emergency has notoriously adversely affected youth’s mental health, leading to a dramatic increase of clinically relevant psychological suffering (mood disorders, eating behavior disorders, sleep and loneliness, social withdrawal, etc.) due to affective maladjustment and an increase in emotional dysregulation. Youth mental health apps hold unique potential for support of this vulnerable population while also posing several issues related to the assessment of their quality, usability and acceptance. Also, despite over 20 years of research in Positive Psychology interventions, the growing number of m-health apps is mostly dedicated to alleviate psychopathological aspects, rather than contributing to well-being. Within the ErasmusKA220 transnational European project, a novel digital app for youth wellbeing has been proposed, developed and tested. The target population is composed of young people aged 16 to 25 experiencing challenges in turning to mental healthcare services because of fewer psychosocial opportunities (such as isolation, socio-economic issues, disabilities) and emotional barriers in seeking help due to real and perceived stigma. The innovative features of this app include: (a) a more inclusive target population, (b) use functions involving both youth and adults, (c) a psychological framework oriented to a full emotional wellbeing, (d) evidence-based and theory-driven Human - Centred design. Moreover, the app is both for individual use and for use as a tool by youthworkers. At the theoretical level, the psychological framework combines well-established constructs from Socio-Emotional Learning (e.g., self-awareness of emotional valence and arousal), the evidence-based third-wave Cognitive-Behavioural approach of ACT - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Training (especially as regards acceptance and defusion of difficult emotions; value-based committed action and Mindfulness), and Positive Psychology (especially for the Strengths-based training). The aim is to increase emotional literacy as a prerequisite for emotion management, and to offer strategies to deal with difficult emotions and strengthen positive emotions and behaviours. Stakeholders were able to produce ideas and solutions based on users' needs and plan the implementation of health strategies, which allows to overcome three main limitations in numerous existing models that guide the design of digital health interventions: the gap in user involvement, the separation between content developers and app designers and the lack of personalization available, e.g., visual interface. The UCSC team started with a bench-marking analysis of m-health apps, a systematic review of mobile apps supporting adolescents and young adults’ mental health and a Systematic Review of Positive Psychology Apps for youth. After carrying out dedicated national and international focus groups both with young people and with youthworkers, researchers have creatively formulated its concept, based on the metaphor of ship navigation, in which the app user identifies with the captain, the ship with his/her own identity, the voyage with a flexible path of personal growth starting from emotional self-awareness (through a mood-tracking activity in the mirror on the deck) to emotional self-regulation through activities suggested (Psychoeducation, Skill building, Gamification, Personalization, Self-Monitoring) in three possible destinations, each with a precise psychological function: the Land of Resilience, the Island of Strengths, in the Safe Harbour. A support site will offer extra psychoeducational and research materials. The continuous project team interaction between the psychologists, the researchers and the developers has allowed gradual refinement to achieve a great minimum viable product in line with the requirements of engagement, functionality, aesthetics, information as well as perceived impact. The prototype version - translated into 5 European languages – will undergo a pre-post, mixed-methods evaluation on its usability and acceptance by youth and youthworkers, using validated questionnaires, open-ended questions, focus groups. Data collection is ongoing not yet completed.

ABSTRACT. Virtual Reality (VR) changed the ways through which art is produced and also experienced by the audience. VR can convey effective emotional and aesthetic experiences thanks to the sense of presence. So far, previous studies have mostly focused on cognitive implications of using virtual environments in aesthetic contexts. However, empirical studies testing whether and how immersion, sense of presence and engagement are able to emphasize emotional responses to artworks, compared to their simple 2D reproductions, are still scarce. In this study, we tested a new immersive aesthetic format of conventional 2D paintings consisting in a 360° spherical representation of the same paintings, enriched with narratives and music. This preliminary study aims at testing the role of immersion and sense of presence in promoting aesthetic emotions, in terms of aesthetic appreciation and emotional responses. To test this objective, in a within subject-design, each participant is exposed in a counterbalanced order to the new aesthetic format consisting of a set of virtual highly immersive paintings presented in a 360° environment (immersive condition) and to the same set of virtual paintings presented on a simple 2D virtual screen (non-immersive condition). Aesthetic emotions were measured through the AESTHEMOS scale containing 21 subscales covering prototypical aesthetic emotions, epistemic emotions and emotions indicative of amusement. Also, measures related to immersion, sense of presence, engagement and perceived novelty of the stimuli were assessed. Finally, self-report questionnaires measuring people’s broader engagement with the arts and humanities, disposition to experience positive emotions and general aesthetic interest were administered to participants. For this preliminary study, we expected artworks to be judged more aesthetically pleasant and emotionally engaged compared to the same set of non-immersive stimuli, presented on a 2D screen. Moreover, we hypothesize immersion, sense of presence and engagement to positively correlate with higher aesthetic appreciation of those stimuli.

ABSTRACT. During Covid-19, people have increasingly looked for occasions to reinforce their affective link with nature as a place to restore from stress and socialize. Affective connection with nature is called nature connectedness as the specific ability to care of other living beings, and to identify oneself as part of nature, increasing multiple dimensions on well-being and general mood (Beute, Albers & van den Berg, 2022).

It has been suggested that being exposed to virtual nature may increase psychological benefits and physiological restoration (Zhang et al., 2021; Gao et al., 2019; Riches et al., 2021), especially thanks to the role played by the sense of presence elicited in simulated scenarios, which emerged as highly related to affect and emotion intensity (Chirico & Gaggioli, 2019). Despite these advancements in the understanding of the benefits associated with simulated nature, little research has examined to what extent the effects of virtual and real nature on wellbeing and emotions are comparable. In the present study, we investigate this hypothesis by comparing virtual and real nature’s ability to convey nature connectedness and wellbeing.

The experiment follows a within-subjects research design involving healthy volunteers who are exposed to the same natural environment either in reality or in virtual reality. Participants are required to self-report their level of wellbeing and nature connectedness after each nature-exposure. In particular, before and after each setting, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Terracciano, McCrac & Costa, 2003); the State-trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y (Spielberger, 1979); Aesthetic Emotions Scale (Schindler et al., 2017) and level of presence and immersiveness will be administered. The Connectedness to Nature Scale (Mayer & Frantz, 2004), the Nature Relatedness Scale Short Form (Nisbet et al., 2009) and the Engagement with Beauty (Diesser et al., 2008) will be administered to assess the general relation with nature. In addition, the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale (Chirico, Shiota & Gaggioli, 2021) will be used to assess individuals' levels of dispositional emotions and the Desire for Aesthetic Scale (Lundy et al., 2010) to assess general aesthetic interest in literature, art, film, design, food and nature.

Data collection is still ongoing. We expect that levels of well-being and nature connectedness will be different in the two exposure settings but that both will reach high levels, with a significant decrease in stress in an adult sample. The relevance of this study deal providing possibility that well-being and nature connectedness are comparable with those experienced in reality, promoting psychological benefits and physiological restoration.

ABSTRACT. Individuals are constantly required to implement adaptive responses to environmental demands, and the ability to do that is deemed as mental flexibility (MF). Mental flexibility includes cognitive, behavioral, and affective components, which are closely intertwined and that interact in real life. Given the complexity of this phenomenon as well as its link with real life environmental demands, and in order to study it in a controlled but ecological way, an advanced psychometric approach is required and here proposed. Specifically, we aim to advance current self-reported MF instruments by developing a new ecological psychometric tool using ecological 360° immersive scenarios featuring prototypical situations in which MF is operationalized by means of explicit observable characters’ behaviors. After each video, participants are required to express their judgement, which was then used to create an automatic score for the individual or collective evaluation of the test. The tool can allow for a more efficient and accurate assessment of mental flexibility compared to self-report measurements. The use of ecological immersive situations and 360° videos provides a unique and powerful way to assess this construct, and the tool could be potentially used in a wide range of research and clinical settings. This novel ecological psychometric approach for studying mental flexibility may hold the potential to deeply change the measurement of dynamic processes, such as mental flexibility.