0000000001234757
AUTHOR
Mariano Alcañiz
showing 33 related works from this author
An adaptive display to treat stress-related disorders: EMMA's World
2009
ABSTRACT Most of the virtual environments currently available in the field of psychological treatments were designed to solve a specific problem. Our research group has developed a versatile virtual reality system (an adaptive display) called ‘EMMA's world’, which can address a wide range of problems. It was designed to assist in clinical situations where a person has suffered a stressful experience, for example post-traumatic stress disorder, adjustment disorder, and pathological grief. To accomplish therapeutic goals, a series of emotional virtual elements are used and personalised so that they are meaningful to the user and contain the fundamental emotional elements that the person must …
Treating cockroach phobia using a serious game on a mobile phone and augmented reality exposure: A single case study
2011
In vivo exposure has proved its efficacy in the treatment of specific phobias; however, not all patients benefit from it. Communication and information technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have improved exposure treatment adherence and acceptance. Serious games (SG) could also be used in order to facilitate exposure treatment. A line of research on SG is emerging which focuses on health issues. We have developed a SG for the treatment of cockroach phobia that uses a mobile phone as the application device. This work examines results of an N = 1 study about whether the use of this mobile game can facilitate treatment of this specific phobia preparing her for th…
Virtual reality treatment of flying phobia.
2002
Flying phobia (FP) might become a very incapacitating and disturbing problem in a person's social, working, and private areas. Psychological interventions based on exposure therapy have proved to be effective, but given the particular nature of this disorder they bear important limitations. Exposure therapy for FP might be excessively costly in terms of time, money, and efforts. Virtual reality (VR) overcomes these difficulties as different significant environments might be created, where the patient can interact with what he or she fears while in a totally safe and protected environment, the therapist's consulting room. This paper intends, on one hand, to show the different scenarios desig…
Neural Networks for Modeling the Contact Foot-Shoe Upper
2010
Recently, important advances in virtual reality have made possible real improvements in computer aided design, CAD. These advances are being applied to all the fields and they have reached to the footwear design. The majority of the interaction foot-shoe simulation processes have been focused on the interaction between the foot and the sole. However, few efforts have been made in order to simulate the interaction between the shoe upper and the foot surface. To simulate this interaction, flexibility tests (characterization of the relationship between exerted force and displacement) are carried out to evaluate the materials used for the shoe upper. This chapter shows a procedure based on arti…
An advanced system for the simulation and planning of orthodontic treatment
2000
This paper presents a new system for three-dimensional (3-D) orthodontic treatment planning and movement of teeth. We describe a computer vision technique for the acquisition and processing of 3-D images of the profile of hydrocolloid dental imprints. Profile measurement is based on the triangulation method which detects deformation of the projection of a laser line on the dental imprints. The system is computer-controlled and designed to achieve depth and lateral resolutions of 0.1 and 0.2 mm, respectively, within a depth range of 40 mm. The 3-D image of the imprint is segmented in order to identify different teeth. Two operators are presented: one for the detection of molars and premolars…
How the physical similarity of avatars can influence the learning of emotion regulation strategies in teenagers
2015
Greater emotion regulation when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater frustration induction when observing a physically similar avatar.Greater physical identification with physically similar avatar.Significant change in brain when observing a physically similar avatar. The aim of this study is to evaluate the influence of the physical similarity of avatars with the user on emotion regulation strategy training. In this study twenty-four teenagers observed an avatar (either physically similar to the participant or neutral) that gets frustrated with his/her computer, after which he/she applies an emotion regulation strategy (slow breathing). The intensity of the emotional induction and…
A game for emotional regulation in adolescents: The (body) interface device matters
2016
The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of the type of interface device in the efficacy of a serious game that teaches emotional regulation (ER) strategies in a non-clinical sample of adolescents. We conducted a between-participants experiment in which participants (N = 61) played a frustration induction game, and then an ER game (a breathing strategy game), using one of three types of devices (computer, smartphone, and RGB-D camera). Frustration mood and perceived arousal were the main variables measured. Results revealed a significant interaction between moment (pre-induction phase, post-induction phase, and regulation phase) and the type of interface device used in the frustration …
Positive mood induction and well being
2009
The aim of this study is to test the role of consecutive positive mood induction virtual procedures on satisfaction of life of people with subclinical levels of sadness and/or anxiety. This is a work in progress and positive effects of mood induction on satisfaction and well being are expected.
The influence of virtual reality in e-commerce
2019
[EN] The development of virtual reality (VR), together with other technological innovations will shape the future of e-retailing. This research studies the effectiveness of different VR formats and devices in a virtual store environment, namely V-commerce. This study proposes and test a conceptual model that analyses the relations between sense of presence, brand recall and purchase intention, while also going deeper into their antecedents. Our findings suggest differences in purchase intention depending on VR format and device used. No differences are shown in sense of presence and affect by VR format and device. Our tested model suggests a dual route of influence of VR on consumers' purch…
Virtual reality treatment of claustrophobia: a case report.
1998
The efficacy of a treatment for claustrophobia using only Virtual Reality (VR) exposure was examined. The subject was a 43-year-old female who suffered from clinically significant distress and impairment and sought psychological therapy. Eight individual VR graded exposure sessions were conducted. All self-report measures were reduced following VR exposure and were maintained at one month follow-up. The necessity of a theoretical framework for this new medium for exposure therapy is discussed.
Visual Attention in Virtual Reality Settings: An Abstract
2019
Virtual reality, VR, is challenging marketers to understand both brand interaction and the customer experience at the point of sale. In order to test the usefulness of VR in retailing, research must address how the customer’s visual attention in a VR setting affects his/her behavior. There are two main drivers for this research. First, there has been an enormous growth in recent years in the use of neurophysiological methods to measure visual attention. At the store level, previous works show that attention to products measured through eye tracking influences consumer decision. Second, VR is being increasingly adopted by brands, but research is lacking into comparisons between VR formats. W…
Virtual Reality in Marketing: A Framework, Review, and Research Agenda
2019
[EN] Marketing scholars and practitioners are showing increasing interest in Extended Reality (XR) technologies (XRs), such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), as very promising technological tools for producing satisfactory consumer experiences that mirror those experienced in physical stores. However, most of the studies published to date lack a certain measure of methodological rigor in their characterization of XR technologies and in the assessment techniques used to characterize the consumer experience, which limits the generalization of the results. We argue that it is necessary to define a rigorous methodological framework for the use of XRs in ma…
Do You See What I See? Effectiveness of 360-Degree vs. 2D Video Ads Using a Neuroscience Approach
2021
[EN] This study compares cognitive and emotional responses to 360-degree vs. static (2D) videos in terms of visual attention, brand recognition, engagement of the prefrontal cortex, and emotions. Hypotheses are proposed based on the interactivity literature, cognitive overload, advertising response model and motivation, opportunity, and ability theoretical frameworks, and tested using neurophysiological tools: electroencephalography, eye-tracking, electrodermal activity, and facial coding. The results revealed that gaze view depends on ad content, visual attention paid being lower in 360-degree FMCG ads than in 2D ads. Brand logo recognition is lower in 360-degree ads than in 2D video ads. …
An fMRI Study to Analyze Neural Correlates of Presence during Virtual Reality Experiences
2013
[EN] In the field of virtual reality (VR), many efforts have been made to analyze presence, the sense of being in the virtual world. However, it is only recently that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to study presence during an automatic navigation through a virtual environment. In the present work, our aim was to use fMRI to study the sense of presence during a VR-free navigation task, in comparison with visualization of photographs and videos (automatic navigations through the same environment). The main goal was to analyze the usefulness of fMRI for this purpose, evaluating whether, in this context, the interaction between the subject and the environment is perf…
The Intelligent e-Therapy system: a new paradigm for telepsychology and cybertherapy
2009
ABSTRACT One of the main drawbacks of computer-assisted psychology tools developed up to now is related to the real time customisation and adaptation of the content to each patient depending on his/her activity. In this paper we propose a new approach for mental e-health treatments named Intelligent e-Therapy (eIT) with capabilities for ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing. From a technical point of view, an eIT system is based on four fundamental axes: ambient intelligence for capturing physiological, psychological and contextual information of the patient; persuasive computing for changing/reinforcing behaviours; ubiquitous computing for using the system at any place, and at any …
Using Augmented Reality to Treat Phobias
2005
Virtual reality (VR) is useful for treating several psychological problems, including phobias such as fear of flying, agoraphobia, claustrophobia, and phobia to insects and small animals. We believe that augmented reality (AR) could also be used to treat some psychological disorders. AR and VR share some advantages over traditional treatments. However, AR gives a greater feeling of presence (the sensation of being there) and reality judgment (judging an experience as real) than VR because the environment and the elements the patient uses to interact with the application are real. Moreover, in AR users see their own hands, feet, and so on, whereas VR only simulates this experience. With thes…
Immersion and emotion: their impact on the sense of presence.
2005
The present study is designed to test the role of immersion and media content in the sense of presence. Specifically, we are interested in the affective valence of the virtual environments. This paper describes an experiment that compares three immersive systems (a PC monitor, a rear projected video wall, and a head-mounted display) and two virtual environments, one involving emotional content and the other not. The purpose of the experiment was to test the interactive role of these two media characteristics (form and content). Scores on two self-report presence measurements were compared among six groups of 10 people each. The results suggest that both immersion and affective content have …
A virtual reality system for the treatment of stress-related disorders: A preliminary analysis of efficacy compared to a standard cognitive behaviora…
2011
This paper presents preliminary efficacy data in a controlled study of the use of a virtual reality (VR) system for treating stress-related disorders (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD; Pathological Grief, or PG; and Adjustment Disorders, or AD). ''EMMA's World'' is a VR application in which patients can explore negative experiences to the degree required for their specific therapeutic needs. To accomplish therapeutic goals, a series of virtual elements is customized to be meaningful to the user; the elements contain the fundamental emotional components that the person must confront. Thirty-nine participants diagnosed with PTSD (N=10), PG (N=16), and AD (N=13) were randomly assigned t…
Changing Induced Moods Via Virtual Reality
2006
Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are designed to induce emotional changes in experimental subjects in a controlled way, manipulating variables inside the laboratory. The induced mood should be an experimental analogue of the mood that would occur in a certain natural situation. Our team has developed an MIP using VR (VR-MIP) in order to induce different moods (sadness, happiness, anxiety and relaxation). The virtual environment is a park, which changes according to the mood to be induced. This work will present data about the efficacy of this procedure not only to induce a mood, but also to change after the mood is induced.
Facial Expressions to Evaluate Advertising: A Laboratory versus Living Room Study
2017
In recent years researchers have shown growing interest in the impact of emotions in television commercials and in advertising in general (Park and Thorson, 1990). Emotions also influence the attitude towards the brand and to the ad (Batney and Ray, 1986; Edell and Burke, 1987; Derbaix, 1995), increase the attention of the advertisement (Olney, Hobrook and Bartra, 1991), and brand recall (Stayman and Batra, 1991).
Competitive active video games: Physiological and psychological responses in children and adolescents
2015
Recent strategies to reduce sedentary behaviour in children include replacing sedentary screen time for active video games. Active video game studies have focused principally on the metabolic consumption of a single player, with physiological and psychological responses of opponent-based multiplayer games to be further evaluated.To determine whether adding a competitive component to playing active video games impacts physiological and psychological responses in players.Sixty-two healthy Caucasian children and adolescents, nine to 14 years years of age, completed three conditions (8 min each) in random order: treadmill walking, and single and opponent-based Kinect active video games. Affect,…
An Augmented Reality System for Treating Psychological Disorders: Application to Phobia to Cockroaches
2005
Augmented reality has been used in many fields, but it has not been used to treat psychological disorders. Augmented reality presents several advantages respect to: the traditional treatment of psychological disorders and virtual reality treatments. In this paper we present the first augmented reality system for the treatment of phobia to cockroaches. Our system has been developed using ARToolkit software. It has been tested with one patient and the results have been very satisfactory. At first of the exposure session the patient was not able to approach to a real cockroach and after the exposure session using our augmented reality system, the patient was able to approach to a real cockroac…
Why Do We Take Risks? Perception of the Situation and Risk Proneness Predict Domain-Specific Risk Taking
2021
[EN] Risk taking (RT) is a component of the decision-making process in situations that involve uncertainty and in which the probability of each outcome - rewards and/or negative consequences - is already known. The influence of cognitive and emotional processes in decision making may affect how risky situations are addressed. First, inaccurate assessments of situations may constitute a perceptual bias in decision making, which might influence RT. Second, there seems to be consensus that a proneness bias exists, known as risk proneness, which can be defined as the propensity to be attracted to potentially risky activities. In the present study, we take the approach that risk perception and r…
Using an adaptive display for the treatment of emotional disorders
2006
A preliminary study on the use of an adaptive display for treating emotional disorders is presented. This adaptive display (named EMMA) varies the contents that are presented depending on the emotions of the user at each moment. The application has been designed to help in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Adjustment Disorder (AD). The specific objective of the present work is to test the effectiveness of this adaptive display, specifically the acceptance of the treatment by patients. EMMA's tools are compared with the standard of care for PTSD and AD. Results showed differences only for the variable aversiveness. Participants in the EMMA condition evaluated the tre…
Body Image and Virtual Reality in Eating Disorders: Is Exposure to Virtual Reality More Effective than the Classical Body Image Treatment?
2009
Body image (BI) disturbances are considered to be central in eating disorders (ED) psychopathology. There are few studies focused on the treatment of BI disturbances in ED, and most of them have used "traditional methods." The purpose of the present study was to probe the effectiveness of one specific component in the assessment and treatment of BI in ED by means of virtual reality (VR). Two treatment conditions were applied: (a) The Standard Body Image Treatment Condition (SBIT) and (b) the VR Condition. Thirteen eating disordered patients were randomly assigned to one of those conditions. No differences between both conditions were found in general ED measures, but patients treated in the…
Life-review therapy with computer supplements for depression in the elderly: A randomized controlled trial
2012
Life-review therapy has been recognized as an effective therapeutic approach for depression in older adults. Additionally, the use of new media is becoming increasingly common in psychological interventions. The aim of this study was to investigate a life-review therapy in a face-to-face setting with additional computer use. This study explored whether a six-week life-review therapy with computer supplements from the e-mental health Butler system constitutes an effective approach to treat depression in older adults aged 65 and over. A total of 36 participants with elevated levels of depressive symptoms were randomized to a treatment group or a waiting-list control group and completed the po…
The acceptability of an Internet-based self-help treatment for fear of public speaking
2009
ABSTRACT Several randomised controlled studies have shown the efficacy of Internet-based self-help treatments. These studies have centred their attention on axis I (efficacy) of the Guidelines for Empirically Validated Treatments, although there are a few studies that also take into account axis II (effectiveness). The aim of the present work was to test the acceptability of an Internet-based self-help program for fear of public speaking and to compare its acceptability with the same treatment administered by a therapist. Fifty-two participants suffering from social phobia were randomly selected to take part in one of these treatments. All participants reported being satisfied with the trea…
The background music-content congruence of TV advertisements: A neurophysiological study
2021
Abstract Music affects viewers’ responses to advertisements. In this study we present the findings of an experiment that investigates the emotional and cognitive reactions of subjects’ brains during exposure to television advertisements with music congruent, and incongruent, with the advertisement content. We analyze the electroencephalography signals and eye-tracking behaviors of a group of 90 women watching six TV advertisements. The study's findings suggested that incongruent music generates higher levels of attention and advertisement recall. On the other hand, frontal asymmetry measured through electroencephalography was shown to be higher with congruent music. Similarly, cognitive wor…
Artificial neural networks for predicting dorsal pressures on the foot surface while walking
2012
In this work, artificial neural networks (ANNs) are proposed to predict the dorsal pressure over the foot surface exerted by the shoe upper while walking. A model that is based on the multilayer perceptron (MLP) is used since it can provide a single equation to model the exerted pressure for all the materials used as shoe uppers. Five different models are produced, one model for each one of the four subjects under study and an overall model for the four subjects. The inputs to the neural model include the characteristics of the material and the positions during a whole step of 14 pressure sensors placed on the foot surface. The goal is to find models with good generalization capabilities, (…
EMMA: An Adaptive Display for Virtual Therapy
2007
Environments used up to now for therapeutic applications are invariable ones. Their contents can not be changed neither by the therapist nor by the patient. However, this is a technical issue that can be solved with current technology. In this paper, we describe a virtual environment that has been developed taking into account this factor. The main technical feature of the environment is that its aspect can be modified controlled by the therapist that conducts the clinical sessions depending on the emotions that the patient is feeling at each moment, and depending on the purpose of the clinical session. The environment has been applied for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder, pa…
The VEPSY UPDATED Project: Clinical Rationale and Technical Approach.
2003
More than 10 years ago, Tart (1990) described virtual reality (VR) as a technological model of consciousness offering intriguing possibilities for developing diagnostic, inductive, psychotherapeutic, and training techniques that can extend and supplement current ones. To exploit and understand this potential is the overall goal of the "Telemedicine and Portable Virtual Environment in Clinical Psychology"--VEPSY UPDATED--a European Community-funded research project (IST-2000-25323, www.cybertherapy.info). Particularly, its specific goal is the development of different PC-based virtual reality modules to be used in clinical assessment and treatment of social phobia, panic disorders, male sexu…
An Internet-Based Self-Help Treatment for Fear of Public Speaking: A Controlled Trial
2010
Abstract This study offers data about the efficacy of “Talk to Me,” an Internet-based telepsychology program for the treatment of fear of public speaking that includes the most active components in cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) for social phobia (exposure and cognitive therapies). One hundred twenty-seven participants with social phobia were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: (a) an Internet-based self-administered program; (b) the same program applied by a therapist; (c) a waiting-list control group. Results showed that both treatment conditions were equally efficacious. In addition, Talk to Me and the same treatment applied by a therapist were more efficacious than the…
Telepsychology: public speaking fear treatment on the internet
2000
El objetivo es presentar un sistema de telepsicología para el tratamiento del miedo a hablar en público. El sistema utiliza procedimientos de auto-ayuda y está compuesto por: a) Un protocolo de evaluación que rastrea información clínicamente relevante; b) Un protocolo de tratamiento basado en procedimientos cognitivo-comportamentales que cuenta con una serie de vídeos de audiencias reales que permiten a la persona afrontar las situaciones temidas. Está organizado en bloques separados a los que se accede a medida que se supera cada fase previa. c) Un protocolo de control que rastrea el progreso durante todo el proceso y controla que la persona no se salta partes del tratamiento (algo común e…