title: Designing virtual audiences for fear of public speaking training - an observation study on realistic nonverbal behavior.
abstract: Virtual Reality technology offers great possibilities for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy of fear of public speaking: Clients can be exposed to virtual fear-triggering stimuli (exposure) and are able to role-play in virtual environments, training social skills to overcome their fear. Usually, prototypical audience behavior (neutral, social and anti-social) serves as stimulus in virtual training sessions, although there is significant lack of theoretical basis on typical audience behavior. The study presented deals with the design of a realistic virtual presentation scenario. An audience (consisting of n=18 men and women) in an undergraduate seminar was observed during three frontal lecture sessions. Behavior frequency of four nonverbal dimensions (eye contact, facial expression, gesture, and posture) was rated by means of a quantitative content analysis. Results show audience behavior patterns which seem to be typical in frontal lecture contexts, like friendly and neutral face expressions. Additionally, combined and even synchronized behavioral patterns between participants who sit next to each other (like turning to the neighbor and start talking) were registered. The gathered data serve as empirical design basis for a virtual audience to be used in virtual training applications that stimulate the experiences of the participants in a realistic manner, thereby improving the experienced presence in the training application.
authors.affiliation: Ilmenau University of Technology. sandra.poeschl@tu-ilmenau.de
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poeschl
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Doering
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic / Q000379:methods*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D019370:Observation; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011187:Posture; D012931:Social Environment; D013060:Speech; D013813:Therapy, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface