Psychoblog

Dear colleagues,

The ANaP lab would like to invite you to a talk by Dr. Benjamin Schöne (Experimental Psychology, University of Osnabrück) on the 9^th of July at 6 pm (room 1.134 at the GEMI). In his talk he will speak about “Experiences in virtual reality: A new tool for psychological research” (please find the abstract below).

We look forward to seeing you at our colloquium.

Best wishes,
Louisa Kulke

Abstract. VR-based paradigms could substantially increase the ecological validity of psychological research as VR allows submerging into real-life experiences under controlled laboratory conditions. In a series of behavioral as well as electrophysiological experiments we investigated to which degree virtual experiences differ from those obtained under conventional laboratory experiences with respect to attentional, mnemonic and emotional processes. Furthermore, we were interested in whether virtual reality sufficiently resembles real-life experiences allowing for a better approximation of real-life cognitive and emotional processes within the laboratory.

Our studies show that common concept such as sustained inattentional blindness might not be fully applicable to real-world conditions. Also, emotional processes, as indexed by frontal alpha asymmetries and heart rate, indicate a higher and sometimes inverse salience of virtual experience as opposed to their 2D/laboratory counterpart. Most interestingly, on an electrophysiological level memory retrieval of virtual experiences is indistinguishable from the retrieval of real-life experiences. Both, in turn, differ significantly from laboratory experiences. In summary, our results suggest a categorical disparity between real-life and laboratory conditions, which could be bridged by virtual reality as a new tool for psychological research.