Grensing, Florian

The field of virtual reality (VR) is no longer limited to the entertainment sector, and the use also increased in the sector of healthcare and therapy. This paper attempts to compare the effectiveness of a Behavioral Avoidance Test for spider phobia in virtual reality to in vivo. To do this, two different BAT approaches are designed for both in vivo and in virtuo to be compared by a group of phobic participants. In addition, physiological data of the participants were recorded to investigate this comparison on a physiological level.

Avatars are often used to represent people in the virtual world. In the process, they can also have numerous psychological influences on the users. Therefore, this paper discusses a multiplayer application in virtual reality and how a appealing avatar could be designed in it. In a small study with six persons the application was tested competitively in teams of two, the users filled out a questionnaire and answered some additional questions. While an increase in motivation was observed in all participants, the choice of the preferred avatar was not uniform. Thus, this showed that an appealing avatar for everyone could not simply be determined, but personal preferences and experience must be taken into account.