The PENSIEVE : psychological quasi-experimental neural study of induction efficacy of virtual environments

Abstract

Virtual reality contributes to the successful treatment of patients by assisting those who have difficulty with the process of imagining the required visual images needed during psychotherapy. It has been used in tandem with exposure therapy and has been as successful as in vivo exposure therapy in the treatment of various phobias and for trauma. According to SHIP®, a form of psychotherapy that promotes the idea that spontaneous healing is a predominant tendency that emerges from within a person, there are certain necessary activator images that provide an avenue into unconscious trauma material that needs to heal. The purpose of this study is to examine whether a simulated virtual environment can be used as a medium to induce memories through the utilisation of neutral images based on the SHIP® Frame. The door image of the SHIP® Frame will be used during this human computer interaction (HCI) study to determine whether a virtual environment can serve as a medium during the SHIP® process. Participants will be gathered and divided into two groups: one group will undergo a traditional, imaginal SHIP® session and be tasked with imagining the required visual stimuli while the other group will undergo the virtual induction with the aid of a head mounted display (HMD). A qualitative method approach will be used to determine the level of induction in both groups and identify the helpful aspects in both groups that contributed to the induction. The results of both groups will then be compared to determine how virtual reality could aid as part of an effective therapeutic method and to identify where the technology can be improved in the future.