Combatting Stress and Anxiety with Virtual Reality

Hey everyone! Now that the majority of my research project is over, I'm focused on working on my final presentation (May 6th) and deliverable: a research paper. I  have mixed feelings about saying goodbye to UAT. On one hand, I'm glad I was able to complete my internship and get everything I needed for my research study; On the other hand, I've become so accustomed to showing up weekly that everyone has just accepted me as a student there, and it feels weird to not go! I've had a really fun experience learning how to run a research study, and I'm glad I was able to meet so many cool people. Although my research isn't exactly groundbreaking or official, I am pretty excited that I got noticed for it! The marketing specialist at UAT, Lauren Fach, reached out to me to write a blogpost about my research. It was featured on the UAT VR twitter , as well as on the UAT Tech Blog . UAT Twitter Lauren's Twitter UAT Tech Blog (Click HERE to view...

Hi everyone! I spent all of last week trying to figure out how to do my statistical analysis. (Image source) I walked into Mrs. Clark's (the AP Statistics teacher) room completely clueless. At first, she didn't realize I had no experience, and suggested I run several different fancy tests for significance and normality that I had never heard of. I must have had the most bizarre look on my face, because after 10 minutes of explanation, she finally asked, "Have you even taken stats before?" "Uhhhh nope." "OH...let's start over." Self-portrait  (Image source) RESULTS After three different sessions of learning statistics, I finally had a moderate understanding. I was able to run paired P tests and 2-sample tests to come to some conclusions: ✅ Based on the self-reported stress levels, VR (in both groups) was significant in reducing stress/anxiety ❌ In Group 2 (with controllers), the BP on average increased! Participants threw ro...

BREAKING NEWS I finished collecting data from 100 participants! Quick update this week: No one signed up for the last day of testing, but I went into super-researcher mode and gathered 17 new participants to meet my goal! Throughout the whole experience, I was able to meet many cool students and get to know the culture on campus. Here I am  (feeling like a real scientist) Here's a quick video compilation I made of participants experiencing VR technology, some for the first time: Now I will begin the statistical analysis of my data to see if any interesting trends pop up. We shall see whether or not VR with controllers made a difference in students' stress levels in a few weeks!

Hi everyone! The second week of data collection was a success! So far, I've gotten through about 60 people and I am on track to reach my goal of 90 participants. It's been pretty tiring running the experiment all by myself, but I am almost done with the experimental phase. As promised, I'll explain the changes I made to the procedure and how the first two weeks went down. Me trying to wrangle college students ( Image source ) First of all, I decided to do away with the control group , because I realized that the best method was to compare any changes in stress to a participant's baseline expectation: no change at all. It would be a waste of time to measure the differences in bio-data before and after five minutes of regular standing, as there would be no change in reported stress levels. After the first two attempts at obtaining control data, I was greeted with confused faces and disappointment at the lack of "cool VR tech to play with." Also, I deci...

Ad attempt #2 ( I  think I'm funny) Hi everyone! This week I started to run my experiment! I will be in the process of gathering data for the next three weeks, but I'll talk a little more about that in the next post. Today, I'm going to talk about the process of recruiting participants. The advertising process was a struggle. It proved to be much harder than I expected, because I didn't realize it would be so hard to get college kids out of their dorms. I started with a Powerpoint slide advertisement that would appear on Canvas, the program the students use to access their class assignments. Unfortunately, I heard that many students skim past announcements on the front page, so not many people signed up. Ad attempt #1 I realized my design was a bit boring and I modified it to be a little more ~eye-catching~ and appealing to the target population (see first image). Some people responded to the second version, but I ended up going up to several students...

Image Source Hi everyone, This week, UAT was on spring break, so I didn't have a chance to go on campus. It was the last week to prepare for my experiment, so today I'll walk you through how I selected which virtual reality program to use with the HTC Vive. During the experiment, participants will be placed in one of three environments: Control: Regular waiting Exp 1: Virtual Reality  Exp 2: Interactive Virtual Reality An extremely detailed and advanced sketch I made of the three scenarios I designed the experiment to compare the effectiveness of  regular virtual reality immersion with an interactive, game-style virtual reality immersion. I wanted to study whether VR could be a viable tool for stress reduction, and if so, which method was more effective for escapism. Research has also shown that gaming can be a form of meditation that lowers stress over time, so I was intrigued to test it out.  To find the most relaxing VR environment, I did some r...

Image Source In order to obtain comparable data during the experiment, I needed to find a quantifiable way to assess anxiety levels.  Biodata: To gather comparable numbers, I plan to record the participants' heart rate and blood pressure before and after exposure to a VR environment. Both of these values are found to be possible indicators of stress, given that factors like strenuous activity aren't involved. I plan to use the p hotoplethysmogram on my phone for measuring heart rate variability, and an electronic blood pressure monitor for measuring blood pressure. Questionnaire: I also wanted to use a survey style that measured current anxiety levels, to get another layer of data. Since most of the valid questionnaires I found are meant for diagnosing anxiety, I decided to create my own Likert scale. In a Likert Scale,  " respondents specify their level of agreement to a statement," and it is  " the most widely used scale in survey research ....

Image Source Doesn't that title already excite you? Unfortunately, I have to get through some boring stuff before I can run my exciting experiment and see the data.  I have been researching past VR experiments to find out what parameters I should include in the planning process. Since this is my first time I creating an official experiment that involves human subjects, I wasn't aware of a large amount of protocol. I am aiming to design my experiment with as much validity as possible for a 17-year-old high-school student, so t he two main articles I had to address were: Institutional Review Board (IRB) Consent forms In order to carry out an official experiment with human participation, the procedure needs to be verified by an IRB: a committee " designated to approve, monitor, and review biomedical and behavioral research involving humans ." Because I am using students from UAT, which doesn't have an official IRB, I had to run my experiment past the ...

View of the pretty quad between the main building and the dorms For my project, I am working at the University of Advancing Technology (UAT) which gives me access to a variety of virtual reality programs. My on-site mentor is Derric Clark, a professor that has specialized in game design and virtual reality for over 20 years. He is also goes by the title "Program Champion of Games Studies." I am also getting guidance from Sharon Bolman, a senior professor who has expertise about the impact of the environment on your mood. Mrs. Gelblicht, my AP psychology teacher, is my faculty mentor from BASIS who also gives me advice about how to plan and run my experiment. The first thing I noticed when I walked in on day one was silence. No, everyone wasn't staring at me as a newbie that entered the school -- there was just no one there! At 9:00 am, the school was pretty much barren, but I later learned from the provost that the school usually doesn't come al...

Image Source Hi everyone! I'm Kristy Taing, and I'm doing my senior project on virtual reality at the University of Advancing Technology. I was interested in studying an interdisciplinary research topic, so I could explore multiple fields. I decided to combine two of my interests: health/wellness and technology. This blog will take you through the design process and results of my project -- come along with me! New applications for virtual reality (VR) technology have revolutionized industry. While devices like Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift are widely used for gaming, there are practical applications of VR technology in the healthcare fields as well. The research aims to investigate the feasibility of using VR technology to reduce anxiety, particularly in the college sphere. Mental health can be easily overlooked during the hustle and excitement of college years. Innovatio n that fa cilitates a smooth lifestyle transition may positively impact students’ well-bei...