Virtual reality exposure with eye-gaze adaptive virtual cognitions

Virtual cognitions are a stream of simulated thoughts that can be rendered in the form of a set of pre-recording audios. People hear the virtual cognitions while immersed in a virtual environment. Although offering virtual cognitions during social skills training in virtual reality can enhance people's self-efficacy and knowledge of social interaction as indicated in previous studies; by not adapting the virtual cognitions to people's focus of attention might limit their efficacy. To address this, we intend to use eye-tracking technology embedded in the head mounted display (HMD) as it gives information about users' focus of attention. In the context of a pretherapy for spider/snake phobia, our virtual reality exposure system provides user eye-gaze adaptive virtual cognitions. To investigate the effectiveness of such virtual cognitions, an empirical experiment with 24 participants will be conducted. We want to examine with the aid of eye-tracking technology, whether the virtual cognitions could guide people's attention during the virtual reality exposure and affect people's self-efficacy of handling spiders/snakes. Furthermore, with the eye-gaze adaptive virtual cognitions, the exposure experience has the potential to be even more plausible, natural and effective.