procedure of freeman

Question 1

Procedure

Answer 1

• participants were allowed some time to explore VR setting
• Once they were used to the VR equipment, they were instructed to explore the room (a library, yet it was not referred to as a library), and form some impressions of the avatars in there with them, including what they may think about the participant.
• Total of 5 avatars were used in the study.
• Sometimes the avatars showed potentially ambiguous behavior such as smiling, chatting to each other, looking around the room or at the participant.
• After 5 minutes the participant was instructed to leave the VR experience.
• The participants were in two groups
  • one half completed a set of measures before and after the VR experience
  • the other half completed the same measures but only after the VR experience
  this was to account for the possibility that the idea of persecutory thoughts being tested was primed from the measures. (increasing validity of findings)

Question 2

step 1

Answer 2

-Participants were trained to use the VR equipment including lightweight headgear to track head position and orientation and a joy stick which allowed the patispants to move around the VR space and asked to enter the virtual environment(a library scene) with virtual characters(avatars) for 5 minutes.

-They then answered questionnaires about their experience and completed a short interview.

Question 3

what happen next

Answer 3

then participants completed the BSI a 53 itam questioner to asses mood,anxity and psychotic symptoms in the last 7 days .

they aslo took two 20 iteam self reports
1-the spilberger state anxaity questioner
2-the paranoia scale
which measures ideas of persecution n reference

Question 4

next after self reports

Answer 4

all partispants completed VR task explore the library for 5 min
partispants were not told there were exploring persuciry ideation
where 5 avatares sat in 2 small groups
3 sat at one desk and 2 sat at another desk

occasionly the avatars showed ambigous such as smailing looking talking to each other

partispants were asked to expore the room and try to form some impression of what yoy think about the peope in the room and what they thin about you

Question 5

what eqipmant was used and why

Answer 5

lightweight headgear to track head position and orientation and a joy stick which allowed the patispants to move around the VR space

Question 6

Brief Symptom Inventory(BSI)

Answer 6

Short form
53 item self report
assesses 9 symptom dimensions over the past 7 days
1) Somatization 2) depression
3) anxiety 4) hostility
5) phobic anxiety 6) paranoid ideation
7) psychoticism
Over the past 7 days
Total score: Global Severity Index
Each item rated on a 5-point scale of distress (0-4)

Question 7

Sense of Presence Questionnaire

Answer 7

-A six-item measure

-Assessing participants’ sense of “being there” in the virtual environment.

-Items are rated on a 7-point scale, converted to a binary scale(0-1) for analysis

.presence refers to the extent to which the participants experience a sense of being in the virtual world
assesses presence on three main criteria: the sense of being there in the environment depicted by the computer displays, a sense of having visited a place rather than just seeing images, the extent to which the virtual world dominated behavior relative to the virtual world rather than real world
questionnaire used before (in previous research)
consists of 6 questions, each rated on a scale from 1-7
higher numbers indicate greater reported presence
score of 6-7 on a question is coded as 1, other scores 0
total score can range between 0-66c

Question 8

Paranoia Scale

Answer 8

-Assessing paranoid ideation and ideas of reference in college students

20 item self-report
Developed to measure paranoia in college students
includes items assessing ideas of persecution and reference
each item is rated on a 5-point scale
scores range from 20-100
higher scores indicate greater paranoid ideation

Question 9

Spiel Berger State Anxiety Inventory

Answer 9

-A 20-item self-report measure

-Items are rated on a 4-point scale.20 item self-report
measure of state anxiety
items rated on a 1-4 scale
scores range from 20-80
higher scores indicate higher levels of anxiety

Question 10

VR-Paranoia

Answer 10

-Assess persecutory thoughts, ideas of reference, and positive beliefs about virtual characters.
-Items are rate on a 4-point agreement scale(0-3)

Was developed specifically for the study
measures situation-specific persecutory ideation
15-item self-report
to assess the participants; views of the avatars
Three areas being assessed: VR-Persecution Q1-5, VR-Reference Q6-10, Positive beliefs about the avatars - VR-Positive Q11-15
Each item rated on a 4-point scale (0-3, do not agree, agree a little, agree moderately, totally agree)
Scores range from 0-15 for each subscale - higher scores indicate higher endorsement of items