None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of the study is to investigate whether a virtual reality exposure therapy program, delivered using 360 degree videos, can reduce public speaking anxiety compared to a waitlist control. We expect that the 360 video program will lead to decreased public speaking anxiety at 2 weeks post-intervention compared to the control.
Interventions
Participants will undergo one 20 minute session of virtual reality exposure therapy. Participants will receive psychoeducational material and then make a ten 2-minute impromptu speeches in virtual reality environments, graded in difficulty, presented through 360 videos in an Oculus Rift headset. Psychoeducational material involves a 5 minute explanation delivered by a research assistant to the participant, explaining anxiety, how avoidance perpetuates anxiety, and about how exposure therapy work
Participants will undergo one 20 minute session of virtual reality exposure therapy. Participants will receive psychoeducational material and then make a ten 2-minute impromptu speeches in virtual reality environments, graded in difficulty, presented through 360 videos in an Oculus Rift headset. Psychoeducational material involves a 5 minute explanation delivered by a research assistant to the participant, explaining anxiety, how avoidance perpetuates anxiety, and about how exposure therapy works. Virtual environments will be 360 video recordings of audiences either listening or ignoring the participant, and will be graded/ranked in difficulty, with the participant starting by viewing audiences of 1-2 participants, with the highest level viewing a full audience in an auditorium. There will be a brief break between each speech. Testing will be conducted by a research assistant face-to-face in a university research lab. Psychoeducational material, virtual reality environments, experimenter instructions and speech topics will be standardised across participants. We will not be audio or video recording to evaluate treatment fidelity.
Sponsors
UNSW (University of New South Wales)
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
At least moderate public speaking anxiety (> 52 on Public Speaking Anxiety Scale) Do not experience motion sickness Willing to undergo virtual reality exposures
Exclusion criteria
Experience motion sickness Currently receiving treatment for public speaking anxiety
Outcome results
None listed